


We're Insane But Not Alone

by CreatePeaceFromChaos



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, X-Men - All Media Types, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Aromantic Natasha Romanov, Asexual Character, Asexual Darcy Lewis, Asexual Sam Wilson, Canon? what's that? can I eat it?, Darcy Lewis is Tony Stark's Daughter, Deaf Clint Barton, Drabble Collection, F/F, F/M, Families of Choice, Fix-It of Sorts, Frigga (Marvel) Lives, Gen, Intersex Jotunn (Marvel), Jotunn Loki (Marvel), Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, M/M, Mentions of Racism, Mentions of homophobia, Multi, NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo 2014, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Odin (Marvel)'s A+ Parenting, Parent Tony Stark, Polyamory, Queerplatonic Relationships, Sam Wilson Is a Good Bro, Slice of Life, Temporary Character Death, Tony Stark Has A Heart, mentions of Xenophobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:21:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 37
Words: 50,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24073624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CreatePeaceFromChaos/pseuds/CreatePeaceFromChaos
Summary: A collection of shorts and drabbles within the Marvel universe. Each short/drabble was inspired by a single word.In regards to timelines and canon and such: I kept what I liked, discarded what I didn't, and mixed it all together with my favourite headcanons until I had something I liked. This was very much written to be self-indulgent and for my own tastes.NaNoWriMo 2014 project. Title from Soundgarden's "Live To Rise".
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Tony Stark, Clint Barton/Darcy Lewis/Loki, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Jane Foster/Thor, John Allerdyce/Bobby Drake, Past Clint Barton/James "Bucky" Barnes - Relationship, Past Nebula (Marvel)/Original Female Character, Pepper Potts/James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Peter Parker/Wade Wilson, Pietro Maximoff/Sam Wilson, Teddy Altman/Billy Kaplan
Comments: 10
Kudos: 26





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was started back in 2014 as my NaNoWriMo project. It ignores pretty much every movie released after The Avengers (except Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and even then just barely), so it's NOT CANON COMPLIANT. I cannot stress that enough. This was written purely for fun, and so I will be deleting any angry or disparaging comments.

Circuitry

It was beautiful. Gleaming in the light, shining and twisting and so very complex.

“Beautiful.” Just like the woman it was part of.

Nebula hadn’t been called beautiful for a long time, so to hear that word directed at her was a shock. And she was instantly suspicious.

“What?”

“Oh, sorry, I just… you’re very beautiful.” Nebula scoffed at the woman’s words.

“You must be partially blind, then,” she sneered. “Do you not see this hideousness?” She gestured to the visible circuitry and implants on her face. The woman – so tiny, so easily breakable – just smiled at her in an impossibly soft manner and reached out, causing Nebula to freeze. Tiny, delicate fingers brushed along the cold metal.

“It is beautiful, as you are.” The woman’s words were sincere. “So complex and brilliant. Beautiful.” Nebula couldn’t find it in herself to speak. “I am Vega.”

“Nebula.” The woman’s smile was brighter than the star she was named for.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Nebula.”

Many, many years later, Nebula would watch on in silent satisfaction as Thanos was destroyed for good by a group of mortals (and a couple of gods and her ‘sister’ Gamora).

He had taken her only love from her, and now he was paying for it.

Now she could accept her own death, and perhaps she would finally be reunited with her beloved Vega.

Mission

It was a simple observation mission. Nothing more, nothing less. All he had to do was watch from a distance, take notes, and then retreat once he’d gathered all the information he could.

He wasn’t supposed to end up here.

Not like this.

The brick wall behind him was unyielding, but so was the body in front of him. He was cornered, trapped in a way that he hadn’t been since he first learned to climb, and yet he was making no attempt to get himself out of that corner. He was _allowing_ himself to be trapped.

It probably had something to do with the way the bigger man was currently trying to reach his tonsils with his (very talented) tongue. Clint let his eyes shut and brought his arms up to grip the bigger man’s biceps, telling himself that it was all for the mission.

It so, so wasn’t.

The Winter Soldier was hot and definitely in need of a good fuck. And if he wanted to do that with Clint and wouldn’t kill him after, then, well, who was Clint to say no?

Betrayal

Tony thought he would be used to betrayal by now, but apparently it was something that just couldn’t be gotten used to. First Obie, then Rhodey – although Rhodey was less betrayal and more frustration – and then Natalie (Natasha, whatever). Then Fury.

Nick Fury, Tony had long ago decided, was a complete and utter bastard.

The fact he’d lied about Coulson’s deceased status was one reason to hate him. That he had tried to lie about the existence of Phase 2 weaponry was another. And then the bastard had gone and faked his own death, just when Tony was starting to like him!

But this… this betrayal was probably the worst.

“Two-faced bastard!” Tony hollered at Fury as SHIELD agents hauled the billionaire away from the Director. “You absolute son of a bitch!”

Turns out SHIELD had been trying to replicate the Iron Man suit and the arc reactor, using the flight systems from the Helicarrier and Stane’s attempt at the suit.

Tony knew he should never have trusted the damn pirate-wannabe.

Road

How they all came to be living together was something that escaped Tony most of the time. He knew how Loki had come to be living with them – he’d invited the guy, after all – but the rest… well, he was fairly sure he’d at least approved their rooms, so why couldn’t he figure out how they had all come to be living in the Tower?

Pepper had had rooms ever since the Tower had first been built, so there was no mystery there. Rhodey had rooms, because when he was in the States he made a point to crash at Tony’s place – which was usually where Pepper was, so the man didn’t have to choose between his girlfriend and his best friend.

The rooms for Steve, Bruce, Clint and Natasha had been added during the remodelling after the Chitauri invasion. It had taken a while for the rooms to be used, but they had got there eventually.

When Phil had been revealed to be alive, it had been easy to move him into the spare set of rooms on the same floor as Natasha and Clint. He would’ve given them each a floor, but Pepper had reminded him that most people when given an apartment weren’t expecting an _entire floor of a fucking skyscraper_ to be said apartment. Tony didn’t know what he’d do without Pepper, to be honest.

When Thor had finally returned, Tony had gifted him a set of rooms, and considering the big guy’s only request was to allow his ‘lady love, Jane Foster’ to move in with him, and _her_ only request was that her assistant Darcy – who was an absolute spitfire and a great person to banter with – was allowed to move in too. It had been easy to sort out, although that had meant allowing someone other than Bruce to live on Tony’s own floor.

Sam Wilson was an unexpected but welcome addition, considering the man’s constantly calm demeanour, and Bucky Barnes was kinda a no-brainer once HYDRA’s programming had been overturned and the Winter Soldier’s memories had all returned.

Charles Xavier had asked a favour of Tony, and that was how twin mutants Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver – Wanda and Pietro Maximoff – came to be living in the Tower.

Tony still wasn’t quite sure when Spiderman had joined them, or when exactly the guy had revealed his identity, but considering how much of a science geek Peter Parker was Tony wasn’t about to start complaining. Although it wounded Tony a little when he realised the kid had been sixteen when he started swinging around the city in his spandex costume, and only seventeen when he had actually become a proper resident of the Tower. No one that young should have taken on such a big responsibility.

For some reason, Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool became a frequent visitor after Peter moved in, so much so that Tony basically just threw his hands in the air in a ‘fuck it all’ manner and rearranged some rooms so the crazy mercenary had a bedroom to sleep in instead of him crashing on Peter’s couch.

And then, finally, a good two years after he led the Chitauri to Earth, came Loki. The kid had been a mess, Tony could see that easily, and he had offered him a drink yet again. And then Tony had offered him a room.

The rest, as they say, was history.


	2. Chapter 2

Youth

Of all possible outcomes he had considered when he made the decision to break into the tower belonging to Tony Stark, Loki had not been expecting this particular one. But the man patiently holding out a glass to him had always caused him to be caught off-balance. Tony Stark was an unusual mortal, beyond arrogant and incredibly irritating, but Loki could not deny his fascination with the Midgardian.

“…you going to take it or just stare at it?” Stark asked, and Loki blinked before reaching out and accepting the offered drink.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you keep doing this?”

“Because I know what daddy issues and torture look like, and kiddo you’ve dealt with both for longer than anyone else.”

“Do not call me a child, Stark. I am far older than you.”

“In years, yes,” Stark conceded, shrugging. He knocked back his drink and poured another. Loki contemplated the glass in his hand. “By my reckoning and research, you’re the equivalent of about twenty-one here on Earth, and by that measurement I’m over twice your age. So, _kiddo_ , deal with it.” Loki growled, and was subsequently taken aback by the flat, stern look Stark levelled at him. “Don’t even try it. Drink your scotch and then we’ll have a talk.”

It was about damn time someone talked to the kid properly… and when the hell had Tony Fucking Stark become a suitable or even viable option for a father figure?!

Quick

Wanda was going to find a way to catch her brother someday. He could move faster than the eye could track, true, but there was bound to be a way to capture him regardless of how fast he was moving. She just had to figure out how to do it.

Tony would be no help, because even machines could only react so fast and Tony was an engineer before much else.

Maybe she could work with Spiderman – Peter – to use webs or something to stop Quicksilver – Pietro – from being able to get away. But again, the reaction time was an issue.

Maybe she should just alter the probability of him tripping over, and that would get him to stop.

Either way, she had to think of something. He was driving her mad.

Video

Peter was going to kill both Wade and Clint the very first chance he got. He was also going to kill Tony Stark and probably try to find a way to completely destroy JARVIS – or perhaps just wipe this particular incident away because JARVIS was actually really great.

But that would have to wait until after he’d developed a way to mind-wipe people. Until he managed that, he would need to make sure that the video didn’t spread further than it already had.

His phone buzzed with an incoming txt – from Gwen.

_Ohmygod, Peter, I cannot believe you actually did it! And in that outfit!_

Moments later, another txt came through – this one from Harry.

_So who’s the one you want to put a ring on it?_

Peter let his head fall against his desk with a thump.

Too late.

Background

Darcy Lewis was used to this, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t hurt. It stung that someone who professed to be her best friend could forget about her so quickly.

Darcy was used to being in the background, but to be pushed aside by someone she was so close to was actually, almost physically, painful.

Jane had Thor, Erik had gone off the deep end, and no one remembered poor political science student Darcy Lewis.

She was surprised she hadn’t been evicted from the Tower yet. There was no place here for useless civilians.

 _“Miss Lewis, you have a visitor,”_ JARVIS informed her in his usual cool, polite tones.

“I’m not in,” Darcy responded instantly, burrowing deeper into her bedding and shoving a pillow over her head for good measure. JARVIS was silent, and Darcy was torn between relief and sadness. Relief that she was left alone as she was asking, sadness that whoever her ‘guest’ was didn’t care enough to push the issue.

 _“Miss Lewis, I’m afraid they are insisting.”_ JARVIS said a minute later.

“…fine,” Darcy allowed, but refused to move from her bed. She would feign sleepiness or sickness, and the ‘guest’ would leave.

She jumped a little when a weight settled onto the bed beside her, having not heard any sound of approach. Only a few people she knew could move like that, and Darcy allowed the pillow over her head to be removed. She kept her face turned mostly into her blankets, though, and peered sideways at her visitor.

“You have been in here for two days now,” Phil Coulson said mildly, and Darcy hitched her blankets a little higher. “Darcy.” She froze. He rarely used her first name. When he did, it was usually for something important or very serious.

“Hi, Son of–” Darcy broke off, swallowed, and rephrased. “Hi, Coulson. What’s up?”

“Ah, so Thor is the problem.” Darcy opened her mouth to protest, but Coulson continued before she could. “Or at least part of the problem. Talk to me, Darcy.”

And it all came rushing out.

The loneliness she had felt the majority of her life, with a bitter mother and absent, unknown father.

The hope that Jane would be different, would remember her, would stay her friend and keep in touch and _care_ about her.

The pain when Darcy realised that no, Jane was no different than the rest, and no, she would not be missed.

“You would be missed greatly,” Coulson interrupted her there, placing one hand on her head and gently combing his fingers through her hair. Darcy leaned into the touch instantly, eyes shutting at the contact. “In fact, I was informed immediately by Agents Romanov and Barton upon my return to the Tower that you had not been seen in nearly forty-eight hours. Potts, Loki, Wilson, the twins, Falcon, Parker, Rogers and Barnes are all concerned. When they surfaced from their laboratories both Banner and Stark declared their concern over your disappearance also.”

“But not Jane. Or Thor.”

“No. But while you may not have the attention of Foster or Thor, the rest of us care for you dearly. It took quite some diplomacy and threats to stop anyone from storming your rooms in search of you.” Darcy sniffled a little, and curled closer to Coulson when he continued the gentle stroking of her hair. “Please come out, Darcy. You have been missed.”

“…okay.”

“Thank you.” Phil Coulson smiled sadly down at the child curled against him.

She was one of the youngest in residence, but people tended to forget that she was only a few years older than Peter due to her maturity both physical and not.

Phil didn’t forget, and he would take care of her when others would or could not.

Cuddle

“Tell anyone about this, and you will never speak again,” Natasha warned, even as she tucked her slender form tight against the person beside her. A warm, strong arm wrapped around her.

“I won’t tell. You know that by now, don’t you? Try to get some sleep, Nat.” Natasha closed her eyes and tucked her chin under Sam’s chin, allowing the Falcon to protect and comfort her with his presence. There were few she trusted this way, only three (now four), and he had proven himself worthy of her trust over the short time they had known each other. She could afford to let the persona of the Black Widow melt away for a while. She could afford to show her more human side. Sam would protect her and keep her secrets.

She trusted him with that.

Faith

Phil Coulson was an unusual agent. Unlike many of his fellows, he didn’t ascribe to science and facts completely. He didn’t make all his decisions based on the numbers and the official profiles of targets or agents or possible assets.

Unlike his fellows, he had faith.

Not in God, or multiple gods, or in some sort of higher power, but in _people_. He had faith that people would act as he expected them to, whether it was due to their nature or whether it was due to their beliefs or whether it was due to some outside pressure. Regardless of the reason, he had faith in _people._

That was why he knew Thor and Jane would make it up to Darcy. Jane adored her intern-assistant-friend, and once it was brought to her attention that she was neglecting her it would be only a matter of days before Jane and Darcy were once again as thick as thieves.

And Thor, who always tried to do the best by his friends, would just need to be told he was neglecting Darcy for him to fix his ways.

Darcy would be happy, and Phil’s faith in people would be proven yet again.

Childish

Natasha knew her time in the Red Room had scarred her for life, even if those scars never showed on her skin. It was a given – she had been raised to suppress all emotion to the extent that she didn’t even truly feel it, raised to be an assassin and nothing else. There was no way to change how she had been raised.

The past couldn’t be changed, and even if it could then she wouldn’t want it. She wouldn’t be where she was now without the Red Room.

There was no way to change the past. It was a childish notion.

Love was for children, and so were wishes.


	3. Chapter 3

Fabric

It was so soft. It didn’t look this soft, but when he’d been no longer able to contain the urge to touch it, he’d discovered that the fabric of the strange shirt-like garment was softer than anything else he’d felt.

That was where Banner found him. The look on the man’s face was one Loki didn’t care to analyse, for fear of what it meant. Loki was frozen where he stood, one hand still touching the impossibly soft garment.

“It’s called cashmere,” the scientist murmured with a gentle smile. Loki swallowed the lump in his throat – that smile reminded him of Mother. “It’s one of the softest fabrics known to humanity, if not the absolute softest.”

“…I have no care for it,” Loki lied, stepping back and averting his eyes. Banner gave a soft laugh.

“Liar. You can wear it, if you like,” he added when Loki looked back at him. The young god’s green eyes widened. “I don’t mind.”

“Did Stark put you up to this?”

“Not at all,” Banner demurred. He stepped closer to Loki and picked up the sweater from the back of the couch. “Here, try it on.” Hesitantly, Loki drew the soft, soft fabric onto his lean frame, giving a delicate shiver at the sensation of it against his skin. He all but burrowed into it, wrapping his arms around himself and shutting his eyes. He didn’t pull away when Banner placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because I believe Tony when he says you’re just a kid who got a bad hand dealt to him,” Bruce murmured, smile sad when Loki froze. “Keep the sweater, kid, I’ve got a few. And let us do some good things for you, yeah? We care.”

Loki didn’t – couldn’t – respond. He wasn’t used to people actually caring about him.

(Jail) Bait

Seventeen. She was seventeen. Starting anything would lead to a jail term. She was _seventeen_.

The young man swallowed thickly as the girl – god, she didn’t _look_ seventeen – leaned against the wall in the most casually sensual manner that he’d ever seen.

“What, has my age put you off?” the girl pouted. It made it even harder to resist. “I knew I should’ve lied. What’s a few weeks anyway?”

“A few weeks is the difference between disapproving looks and a jail sentence,” he retorted, getting a sultry smirk from the girl as she looked at him with what on a _legal_ woman would be considered bedroom eyes.

“Oh, don’t be so pessimistic,” she purred, stalking towards him with a sway to her hips that made him go a little weak at the knees. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

“That doesn’t make things bet–” His words choked off as she palmed him through his jeans. Fuck, she was forward! “Oh fuck, oh fuck…”

“That’s the idea,” she whispered, nipping at his ear. He pressed his hands flat against the wall behind him. Her entire body pressed up against him, and he shut his eyes and turned his head away from her when she moved as if to kiss him. “Oh, you’re no fun.”

“Leave. Go away. I am not going to jail for picking someone up, no way. Get out of here.”

“Well, looks like we got the wrong guy,” the girl sighed, releasing him and stepping away. Carefully, hoping it wasn’t a trick, he opened his eyes and peeked at the girl. She no longer looked like she was crafting her every move to seduce him, instead standing in a very businesslike posture. A small smile curved her lips.

“Wha?” he managed.

“I do apologise. It appears there has been a case of mistaken identity.”

“Mistaken identity?”

“Yes. A man with silver hair frequenting this area has been involved with teenaged girls. Intel pointed to you.”

“I hardly ever come here! This is the first time in months I’ve come here.”

“And again, I apologise. Sorry for the inconvenience.” The woman – a cop, maybe? – turned to leave, and then glanced back over her shoulder at him. “Oh, and by the way, I’m not actually seventeen, so you weren’t flirting with an underage girl tonight. Be safe,” she smiled at him, and he leaned back against the wall with a shaky exhale. She was gone a moment later, and Pietro scrubbed a hand over his face.

He was never going out without Wanda ever again. She usually kept the crazies away from him.

And why the hell was silver hair the only descriptor given? Not all people with silver hair were old – he was proof of that, considering he was only in his early twenties, and probably shouldn’t have been in a bar anyways considering he didn’t have a valid form of ID – and definitely not all old people were ephebophiles.

Pain

It was constant, but he never let it show.

He laughed it off, made jokes, pretended that the pain was non-existent or minimal, that his pain tolerance was higher than anyone else’s or even above what was considered possible for humans.

But it hurt so, so much. Day in, day out.

It never stopped.

He hurt, he itched as he healed, he hurt again. And everyone just believed him when he said he was fine, when he said it just stung a little when it actually burned so bad he felt like he was on fire.

He was in constant pain, but he never, ever let anyone know.

Disappear

Maybe he could just disappear. Fade into nothing as the people around him forgot his existence entirely. It wasn’t like any of them actually cared about him. They only cared about what he could do for them and what he could give them, not who he was. Everyone had been like that, right from the time he was old enough to show that his intelligence was on par with – if not greater than – his father’s. The only one who had ever liked him for himself was Edwin Jarvis, now long dead.

And Tony was left contemplating how many people would notice or care if he happened to disappear into thin air.

They’d probably be annoyed that he wasn’t providing for them anymore, but then they would move on. No one would miss him…

“Tony?” Peter.

“Hey, kid,” Tony managed a smile for the seventeen-year-old. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much.” Peter shrugged and entered the room in full. “Can I just… sit with you for a bit?”

“Sure. C’mere.” Peter settled onto the couch beside Tony and leaned into him, resting his head on Tony’s shoulder when the billionaire wrapped an arm over his shoulders. A few minutes passed in silence, and then Tony lifted his head and looked towards the door again. “C’mon, Lokes. You too.” Loki sidled into the room and sat on Tony’s other side, leaning into the gentle hand that rested on his head briefly.

With two of the three ‘children’ of the Tower using him as a pillow, Tony let his head fall back against the couch and shut his eyes.

Perhaps he would be missed if he disappeared after all…

Chaos

Darcy, Clint, Wade and Loki sat up on a ledge – made and sustained by Loki’s magic – in the gym, watching the rest of the Tower’s permanent occupants run around like chickens with their heads cut off. It was absolute pandemonium…

It was fucking epic.

“How long do you think it’ll take them to realise who’s behind it all?” Darcy asked casually as Steve and Thor collided with a loud, painful-sounding _crash_.

“Not much longer,” Clint cackled. Natasha was the sole person in the room who was not running around like an idiot, and was instead glaring around at everyone else. It wouldn’t take her long to realise who was missing, and then start looking up.

“Ooh, that looked like it hurt,” Wade snickered, pointing the dogpile that was the result of Bucky, Tony and Sam running straight into each other and then bowling over Pepper, Peter and Phil in the process.

“Be ready to run” Loki warned. Natasha’s eyes focused on the guilty quartet a moment later, and narrowed. “Run!”

They ran.

Heartbreaker

Steve was shaking.

It wasn’t with cold, nor with fear, but with anger. He was _furious_.

How could someone discover such abuse and let it go unpunished? If the dates were any reliable source, then SHIELD had known how bad Howard had become _years_ before his death.

What in the world had happened to his old friend?

Howard had always been a bit reckless, a bit too fond of the drink, but he had never been one for mindless rages.

The files he had recovered showed over a decade of physical and psychological abuse inflicted on Tony Stark by his own father, most of the physical abuse in mindless drunken rages.

No wonder Tony was so reckless.

No wonder he hated Howard.

No wonder he had such low self-worth.

If Steve had spent twelve years being beaten and verbally abused by the parent he looked up to, he would probably have died years ago. That Tony had managed to keep going was a miracle in and of itself.

And yet…

Steve’s heart broke.

Tony’s childhood actually wasn’t the worst out of the Avengers. And it was no longer a surprise that the genius had taken them all under his protection or become a father figure to both Loki and Peter. (Steve now thought that if Wanda and Pietro allowed it, they would also be getting treated as Tony’s children.)

Tony Stark’s heart was far bigger than anyone gave him credit for.

Imprint

It was still there.

It wasn’t a perfect outline, but there was no doubt that the hollow section in the floor was the imprint of Loki’s body where he had been slammed by the Hulk multiple times.

Loki avoided looking at it, disliking the physical reminder of his time under the influence of the Mad Titan. Just looking at the imprint in the floor made his back twinge in remembered pain, and it had been over two years since the incident.

“Loki? You up here?” Peter’s voice called, and then a moment later the teenaged superhero was standing beside him. “Oh, dude, why do you do this to yourself?”

“I do not know what you speak of,” Loki said stiffly, turning away. Peter snorted.

“Yeah, sure, of course you don’t.” The sarcasm was heavy in his voice. “C’mon, dude, move away from the dents in the floor and come help me set this up to get Thor.”

“What is it that you are setting up?” Loki’s interest was piqued. Peter grinned cheekily at him.

“Just wait and see. C’mon!”

Loki followed the cheerful teen away from the imprint of his body in the floor with a faint smile curving his lips.


	4. Chapter 4

Eliminate

It couldn’t be the truth, but there was no other explanation. When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.

Still, he had been so careful!

_“Sir?”_

“Yeah, JARVIS?”

_“Would you like me to destroy the evidence?”_

“No…” Tony sighed, scrubbing a hand across his face tiredly. “No, just lock it away. Secure archives, JARVIS, deepest level.”

_“Done, Sir.”_

Tony sat back in his chair and let his head drop back, staring up at the ceiling. Fuck.

Peter, he’d taken under his wing ‘cause the kid was nearly as smart as he was, and was a joy to be around. Loki, he’d started caring for because it was clear the kid needed someone – and yes, he was a child, despite being over a thousand Earth years old.

But Darcy…

Darcy Lewis was twenty-three, feisty, and could knock out a god with her not-quite-legal Taser. She was under Coulson’s protection, and the agent clearly cared for her like a daughter. She didn’t need another dad. Especially not one like Tony.

But at the same time…

Tony wanted to know her. He wanted to know his daughter.

“JARVIS, can you get Coulson to come down here? I need to talk with him.”

_“Of course, Sir.”_

“Thanks, J.”

Observer

It was difficult, being on the outside all the time. Being unable to properly join in on the interactions of those he cared about. It was depressing to be constantly on the sidelines, an observer to all that happened but unable to truly do anything to change things.

There went Tony, hands flailing about as he chattered enthusiastically to the two interested young men following him.

Oh, and Bruce, smiling faintly and shaking his head when Tony tripped and stumbled while Peter and Loki laughed.

Pepper was on a business trip, Wanda accompanying her as her PA, but Rhodey was at the Tower for once, currently sleeping in his rooms to try and recover from the jet lag.

There went Thor, bounding towards Jane’s lab with Darcy running after him yelling for him to ‘wait, Thor, she’s in the middle of an experiment!’

Philip was seated on an armchair in the large living area, watching with amused eyes as Clint, Sam, Pietro and Wade cussed each other out over the racing game currently dominating the television screen.

Steve was sketching outside, Bucky’s head on his lap as the ex-KGB assassin dozed in the sunlight. Natasha was reading beside the two of them, looking up to check on the two men from the 40s every now and again.

JARVIS would have sighed if he could. If only he had a physical form with which to interact with them all…

He wanted to actually be able to touch his family.

Captured

He ran, darting in and out of pedestrian traffic, not daring to slow down enough to look back at his pursuer. He knew that if he slowed for even a moment, he would be caught.

“Hey, watch it!” someone snapped as he rushed by. He didn’t have the breath to shout an apology back at them, and didn’t dare slow down to do so. He could feel his pursuer getting closer steadily, and took a sudden left to try and throw them off. He darted across a road filled with idling cars, going off the pattern he knew his pursuer had figured out.

He kept running, lungs burning and side aching.

Nearly…

Nearly there…

Arms closed around his waist from the side, sweeping him off his feet and to a complete stop. He struggled half-heartedly, pouting when his best friend and lover just flung him over his shoulder with ease.

“Spoilsport,” Bucky grumbled, folding his arms and refusing to look at the perfect ass of his best friend. Steve laughed softly.

Acceptance

Not many people really understood when she told them she was asexual. Lots of people didn’t even try to understand. They had all sorts of ‘explanations’ for her as to why she didn’t want or like sex.

_“You just haven’t met the right person yet.”_

_“You just aren’t doing it right if you don’t like it.”_

_“Oh, who hurt you? You know, to make you scared of sex?”_

_“So what sort of hormonal imbalance do you have that you don’t experience sexual attraction?”_

None of them listened to her protests. None of them listened to her explanations. None of them (with the exception of this one person, Lex, who she’d roomed with for a semester) just nodded and said ‘okay’ when she told them.

No, all of them thought that she was broken, prudish, frigid, traumatised. They thought that she was saving herself for ‘the right person’, or was a scared virgin – excuses, excuses, excuses.

Well, they were so fucking _wrong_ that it wasn’t funny. She wasn’t broken, she just wasn’t interested! Sex was sweaty, time-consuming, tedious and energy-wasting – she’d tried it, once she was legal, with a few different people, and her feelings about sex remained the same. To be honest, she just couldn’t see the point.

 _“But, orgasms!”_ one of her college friends had protested when Darcy told her that.

 _“I can get off perfectly fine on my own,”_ she had responded bluntly. Seriously, masturbation was a thing, and girls did it just as much as guys.

Yeah, their friendship never made it out of college.

But, god, she just wished someone, anyone, would understand! And even if they didn’t understand, that they would at least accept it and _try_ to understand.

“Miss Lewis,” JARVIS spoke up as Darcy moodily flopped onto her bed face down. She turned her head slightly.

“Yeah, JARVIS?”

“Mr Wilson is concerned. He is requesting entrance to your rooms.”

“Wade or Sam?”

“Sam, Miss Lewis.”

“Let him in then, JARVIS, thanks.”

A minute later – less than, actually – Sam flopped down onto her bed beside her, on his back to stare up at her ceiling.

“So, the date went bad then, kid?”

“Don’t call me a kid when you’re less than a decade older than me,” Darcy huffed, turning her head to glare at him. He just grinned at her unrepentantly. “Yeah, it went bad. Even though I _told him_ I’m asexual, he still thought I’d let him try for third base…” Darcy trailed off. This was actually the first time she had mentioned her sexuality in the Tower, to any of her housemates-slash-friends-slash-family.

“God damn it,” Sam cussed. Darcy blinked at him. “Did he try to force you?” the protectiveness in Sam’s voice was gratifying.

“No, he just called me frigid,” Darcy muttered. “Not like I haven’t heard that before.”

“I had a girlfriend back in college who did pretty much the same thing, but when I told her I wasn’t at all interested in her body she called me gay and said I was a closet case,” Same informed her. “That dude, though, sounds like a bastard.”

“Yep.”

“…want to eat junk food, watch cartoons, and bitch about the lack of listening skills and understanding in most allo people?” Sam offered. Darcy laughed.

“Sure.”

Finally, someone who accepted and understood.

It was nice to find a kindred spirit.

Exception

Bucky didn’t usually like touching people, but there were always exceptions to his rules. The dislike of touch came from being raised by an abusive father, and from being experimented on and tortured far too many times.

But, as with all his rules, there were exceptions.

Steve, of course, was always allowed to touch him. Even before he went off to war Bucky had been leery of touch, but he’d always welcomed Steve’s. That hadn’t changed, even when Steve had.

Natasha was allowed, because she was his little Natashenka and he was her Yasha. He’d practically raised her. They had been through hell together and somehow made it to the other side, and she was one of the few he trusted.

Tony was a surprise to most, but Bucky trusted the man despite his reputation. Tony was always careful with his metal arm, and his casual initiation of contact outside the lab was no different than how he treated everyone else.

Sam was permitted, as was Darcy. Everyone else, though, was treated with wary politeness and carefully kept at arm’s length.

 _‘That might change, though,’_ Bucky thought to himself when he didn’t immediately lean back from Peter’s hand when the boy was reaching for a drink. _‘Maybe I can trust this lot.’_

Time

Time was such a funny thing. People complained it went too fast, complained it went too slow, that there wasn’t enough of it or that there was too much of it.

To be honest, Pietro didn’t get what they were all complaining about. So you had to work an eight hour shift – so what? Eight hours isn’t that long when you experience time normally.

Eight hours is a _long_ time to someone with super-speed. Pietro’s been dealing with that since his powers first manifested. When you can move so fast that bullets appear to have completely halted mid-air, eight hours takes an eternity.

It was a wonder that his aging hadn’t been accelerated with the amount of time he spent using his powers. He was lucky that his acceleration only applied to movement, not cellular growth. If it did, he’d be an old man by now, if not dead.

Everyone else was lucky they didn’t experience time the way Pietro did.


	5. Chapter 5

Glamour

Loki was avoiding everyone. He had visited Asgard recently, and upon his return had ceased to initiate contact with anyone. Tony was worried, Peter was fidgety, and Darcy was doing her best not to freak the guy out by hugging him until he relaxed – every time she saw him her hands would twitch with the urge to cuddle him close.

But there was clearly something very wrong. Something had happened in Asgard to cause Loki’s sudden distance from everyone, but Thor was either unaware of or deliberately ignoring the change in Loki’s behaviour. Neither of those options were acceptable.

“Do you think you can talk to him?” Darcy asked Sam one evening, as the two of them sat around watching cartoons and eating Ben & Jerry’s.

“Who, Loki?”

“Yeah.”

“I guess I can give it a shot,” Sam shrugged. “He’s hard to pin down these days.”

“I know, that’s why I’m worried,” Darcy sighed. “Usually he’s with Peter or Tony or both, but he’s been avoiding _everyone_ and I know it’s got something to do with the time he was in Asgard. I’m really worried.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Sam promised.

Unseen due to an alteration of his glamours, Loki slunk away back to his room. There he let the illusions fall, revealing cold blue skin and deep red eyes. He curled up in one corner, buried his face in his arms, and wept. His room frosted over.

Monster

He was hideous. A monster. Dangerous, violent, savage. Unworthy of affection, of love, of friendship.

Monstrous.

“Go away!” he screamed at the ones knocking at his door. The knocking paused.

“Loki, let me in,” Sam’s calm voice called through the door.

“Leave me alone!”

“Loki… kid, please, let someone in.” That was Tony. He sounded wrecked, like he was on the edge of tears.

“Go away…” It was more of a sob than a scream this time, and those outside his door, however many there were, fell silent.

A few minutes passed, and Loki was sure that they had left. Left him alone because of his monstrous nature…

_SMASH!_

Loki jumped, wide-eyed and panicked, as his door was literally smashed open. A big green face peered through, frowning, and Loki swallowed thickly as the Hulk entered the room and lumbered over to him.

Much to his shock, however, Bruce’s big green alter-ego didn’t attack him.

Instead, the large being seated himself on the floor in front of Loki and carefully lifted the Jötunn’s slender blue form into his lap, cradling him close and stroking his black hair with large but gentle fingers. His back was to the door, blocking Loki from view completely. He didn’t seem to notice how cold the room was.

“Hey, big guy, everything alright in there?” Tony called from the doorway. Loki felt rather than saw the Hulk turn his head.

**“All good. Hulk take care of little blue man.”**

“…blue… man?” Hulk rumbled an affirmative noise to Tony’s bewildered question. “Right, well then, I’ll leave you to it. Call JARVIS if you need anything, alright?”

**“Hulk will call.”**

There were a few muffled voices, overpowered by Tony verbally and probably physically ushering everyone away, but Loki was more focused on the green giant holding him like a child.

“Why?” he asked quietly.

**“You sad. Hulk hug and make better.”**

“It doesn’t usually work that way,” Loki muttered, but he didn’t try to move away. Hulk rumbled deep in his chest, hitching Loki’s body a little higher in his arms, and Loki leaned his head against Hulk’s shoulder with a sigh. His red eyes slid shut, and sleep soon followed.

If he was to be revealed a monster, at least he had some monstrous company.

Even though Bruce and his alter-ego were both far too kind to be considered _monstrous_.

Coincidence

Wanda thought she would never see her sons again. In fact, she didn’t even think they would be born this time around. When you change something so dramatically that even your childhood resets, the children you bore in your thirties would, by all logic, completely disappear.

So to see two boys, identical in face and build but opposites in colour, hovering around outside Avengers Tower, looking so similar to her and Pietro, was a huge shock to the Scarlet Witch. And it could be no coincidence.

 _“Hey, Stark. These two say they’re here to find a Wanda Maximoff,”_ Clint Barton relayed up via the comm. systems they usually used for missions. Tony looked at Wanda, who swallowed thickly and nodded once.

“Lead ‘em up, Birdbrain.”

_“Right.”_

A few minutes later, Wanda was staring at two boys only six or so years younger than she was. Oh, they looked so much like her and Pietro!

“Uh, hi,” the silver-haired one said sheepishly, shifting awkwardly on the spot while the other fiddled with his bracelets. “I’m Tommy, and this is Billy.”

“I’ve been having dreams,” Billy blurted out. “Of an alternate future. I think… I think you were our mother?” His voice went up slightly at the end, making a question of his statement due to his nerves.

“Oh, my boys,” Wanda almost burst into tears, but hugged her sons close instead. “Yes, I was, and I thought I’d lost you both forever.”

Shocked as they were by her instant reaction, Tommy and Billy hugged her back.

“Now this is some weird shit,” Clint muttered to himself.

Wanda set his pants on fire, and smiled into Billy’s hair at the archer’s yelp and subsequent flailing. She had her sons back.

Memories

All of them had issues with memories, even if the specific issue varied from person to person. For some of them, the issues came in the form of nightmares of past events, flashbacks in their dreams of traumatic events they had experienced over the course of their lives.

For others, it was a lack of memories which caused them problems. Sometimes they could wake in a panic, unable to remember where they were or why they were there, whereas at others they would suddenly recall something that had formerly been forgotten. Either way, those of them with gaps in their memories suffered greatly from it.

The nightmares of remembered torture were the worst for everyone. Few of them had actually experienced it, but everyone was affected by those who did experience it.

It was hard to say whether Tony, Bucky or Loki’s were the worst. Bucky’s were the loudest by far, but Tony and Loki’s were just as terrifying for their silence.

All of them wished that their memories did not cause them so much grief.

Photograph

Peter wasn’t quite sure how a single photograph had set all this off. It was a harmless little thing, very old and faded but showing a rough-looking brunet man standing beside Bucky and Steve back in the 40s, all of them grinning – although the stranger’s seemed more of a smirk. It wasn’t a colour photograph, but since the stranger’s hair looked the same as Bucky’s in the photo, Peter assumed it was brown.

But he didn’t know why that photo had set Wade off.

“Peter? What’s up, kiddo?” Bucky asked when he saw Peter staring blankly at the photo in his hand. Peter blinked and looked up at him.

“Oh, hey Bucky. Uh, not much, really. Just found this old photo…” he held it up, and Bucky’s eyes widened.

“Holy shit, I didn’t even realise that was still around,” he exclaimed. “Where’d you find it, kid?”

“It was in a bunch of Tony’s dad’s stuff that he has me helping him sort out,” Peter shrugged. To be honest, he didn’t mind helping, especially since it allowed him to see when something set Tony off and he could fix it or at least go running for someone who could. “Who’s the other guy?”

“Huh?” Bucky seemed puzzled for a moment, but then his expression cleared when Peter pointed at the stranger. “Oh, that was James Howlett. Him and his brother Victor helped us out a few times soon after Steve started working with the Commandos, but disappeared a little while later. Never heard anything about either of them again.”

“Oh.” Peter thought this over for a moment. “So why did this photo set Wade off?”

“I got no answers for you there, kiddo. You might need to ask Wade that. Later, though, if he’s been set off by it,” Bucky added. Peter sighed.

“Yeah, alright. Thanks.”

Blue

Loki was cautious about venturing from his rooms. Both Bruce and Tony had assured him – after Tony and the rest of the Tower’s residents had been informed – that no one cared that he was blue, and had told him that in actual fact Darcy was fascinated and wanted to get a better look at his markings.

Loki was more than a little sceptical.

Sure, they might think it interesting now, but they would soon enough see that he was a monster. Something such as that could only be hidden for so long before it became obvious. Just like the colour of his skin and eyes, really.

“Hey, Lokes,” Darcy chirped when Loki warily slunk into the kitchen he usually shared with her, Tony, Peter, Bruce and Wade (when Wade was in residence). Apart from her, this morning there was no one in the kitchen. “How you doing?”

“…I am well,” Loki responded hesitantly. “And yourself?”

“I’m good,” Darcy grinned at him. “So, finally decided to venture out of that closet you call a room?”

“It appears so,” Loki couldn’t help but snark back at the girl. Her grin didn’t falter – if anything, it widened.

He was still feeling self-conscious about his appearance, but the way Darcy was acting made it seem as if she didn’t even see it. How could she not see the vile blue colour of his skin and the scar-like markings marring his features?

“Awesome,” Darcy continued blithely. “Wanna watch some movies with me and Sam later? We plan to pig out on ice cream and watch kiddie cartoons until someone stops us and makes us eat real food.”

“…you are so strange.”

“I know! Wanna join in anyways?” Loki smiled, a true and slightly shy smile that had Darcy’s face almost splitting in two from the size of her grin.

“Sure,” Loki allowed.

Maybe Tony was right when he said no one in the Tower cared about Loki being Jötunn.


	6. Chapter 6

Old

Darcy wasn’t quite sure what to make of the news. When Phil had sat her down with a serious look on his face, Darcy had been sure that he was about to tell her that one of her friends and housemates had been hurt badly.

What he actually told her was a shock.

“…so basically, my Mom had a one night stand which resulted in me, and that one night stand was with an underage Tony Stark?” she summed up.

“Yes. Tony came to me for advice when he found out.”

“Advice?”

“He wished to know if it would be better for him to keep his knowledge to himself, or to inform you of your biological connection. In the end, he asked me to make the decision for him.”

“Oh.” Darcy stayed silent for a while, taking it all in. “Can I talk to him? Like, properly for a change?”

“That is up to the two of you,” Phil replied as calmly as he had told her everything else. “I can see no reason why you could not.”

“Right…” Darcy fell silent again. “Huh, my old man is Iron Man.”

“I would advise not letting Stark know you called him old,” Phil responded dryly, and Darcy started to giggle.

Green

There were many things associated with the colour green.

Life.

Poison.

Nature.

Radioactivity.

Such contrasts, yet the colour stayed the same. Green.

Positive and negative, life and death, safety and danger.

Green.

Bruce used to be fond of the colour – before the Hulk.

Loki loved the colour – before he found out it was the colour of Jötunn royalty.

Now both of them disliked it.

But they were getting better. They were remembering the positives associated with the colour, and all the positives that had come of it.

Loki’s green magic had made him close to Frigga.

The Hulk’s green skin was impervious to weaponry and had saved his life many times.

The colour of Loki’s magic reminded his friends and chosen family, of life and nature and all good things.

The Hulk’s big green eyes were full of emotion which drew his friends and chosen family closer.

They didn’t love the colour as they had used to, but both of them were getting better with it.

Bleeding

There was blood everywhere.

Darcy stared, stunned, at the mess in the hallway outside the kitchen. There was blood on the floor and walls, streaks and splatters of it that had her stomach churning.

“Hello?” she called out warily, palming her Taser as she moved towards the kitchen. “Guys? Who’s been bleeding on the walls?”

“Sorry, Darcy,” Peter called from the kitchen, and Darcy peered in the doorway. Peter was bandaging up Deadpool’s arm. “He doesn’t seem to realise that blood is a bitch to clean up.”

“As long as he’s the one doing it so Loki, Bruce and Tony don’t have heart attacks,” Darcy sighed. “What happened, dude?”

“Oh, just a bit of a fight gone off,” Wade said cheerfully. And it was Wade now, not Deadpool. “You should see the other guys.”

“No thanks,” Darcy said dryly. “I guess you won, then.”

“Are you doubting me?” Wade pouted.

“Nope,” Darcy popped the ‘p’. “But you’re still cleaning this mess up once your arm is healed.”

“Awww!”

Void

_“No, Loki…”_

Darkness.

There was something moving in that darkness, but he couldn’t see it, couldn’t hear it… he could feel it, and it terrified him.

He didn’t want to go back into the Void. Please, no, not the Void…

Tony… Bruce… Anyone, please not the Void!

_“Loki…”_

He whimpered, curling in on himself in the darkness.

_“Loki… wake up… sweetheart, you’re dreaming… wake up…”_

“WAKE UP!”

Loki sat bolt upright with a gasp, curling in on himself as ice crackled around him. He shuddered, holding back his tears and his sobs as best he could.

“Loki?” That wasn’t Thanos’ voice. Loki lifted his head, still trembling, and froze when he saw the ice surrounding him. It barred him from the rest of the room, and barred Tony from getting to him. “C’mon, kiddo, lose the ice for a moment?” Loki focused best he could, and the ice vanished.

An instant later, Tony was on the bed holding him tight. Loki broke down into sobs, burying his face in Tony’s shoulder and wrapping his arms tight around the mortal’s waist.

“Hey, is he okay?” Darcy’s voice drifted over from the doorway, and Tony beckoned her closer. She approached and sat on Loki’s other side, wrapping an arm around him just as Tony had done and pressing in close. Loki trembled, his sobs slowly quieting.

“I am well,” he said stiffly once he could speak without his voice cracking.

“Bullshit,” Darcy and Tony chorused.

“Nightmares aren’t anything to be ashamed of,” Tony soothed, hands rubbing at Loki’s spine gently. “I get them, Bruce gets them, Cap gets them, and you can bet anything that the spy twins and Coulson get them too.”

“I get nightmares, and so do Peter, Sam, Wade, the actual twins and Pepper,” Darcy added. “I think the only person who doesn’t get regular nightmares is Jane. Nightmares are normal after traumatic events. Just let us help you after, yeah?”

“…very well.”

It was better to be coddled than to be back in the Void. Anything was better than the Void.

Clubhouse

“So this is the super-secret clubhouse you’ve been disappearing to,” Gwen commented as Peter accompanied her up to the doors of Avengers Tower.

“Gwen,” he complained, “It’s not a super-secret clubhouse.”

“Not-so-secret clubhouse, then.”

“Gweeeennnnnnn.”

“I’m just messing with you, Peter,” Gwen pinched his cheek lightly with a grin. “You’re so easy to rile up.” Peter huffed and pouted a little, but didn’t protest her statement. Gwen always knew just what to say to get him flustered. It kinda came with having known him since elementary school.

They entered the building and went directly to the elevator, Peter waving at security as they passed and getting waves and smiles in return.

“So you spend a lot of time here, then,” Gwen commented after the doors to the elevator shut, leaving her and Peter alone.

“Don’t tell anyone, but I live here now,” Peter confided.

“…huh. I did not expect that.”

“I know.”

“Shut up, Peter.”


	7. Chapter 7

Golden

If there was one word to describe Asgard, Tony would have to go with… with _bright_. The light gleamed off golden towers and reflected off glass and metal, making everything shine and gleam and shimmer. It was extremely bright and Tony wasn’t sure he wanted to keep looking at it.

“Welcome to Asgard,” a large golden-clad man with dark skin and orange eyes rumbled.

“Uh, thanks,” Tony managed. He was not ignorant to the look the man turned on Loki, but he didn’t say anything about it. If this Asgardian wanted to be a racist dickhead because Loki happened to have blue skin and red eyes, then that was his problem. Until it caused problems for Loki, Tony would ignore it.

“This way, brothers,” Thor boomed, gesturing along the transparent yet multi-coloured bridge between the large room in which they had arrived and the great big golden city.

“Is it too late to say I would rather stay home?” Tony muttered from the corner of his mouth to Steve. The big blonde’s lips twitched as he restrained a smile, and Tony smirked as he stepped up to Loki’s side. “So, Lokes, has anyone gone blind from the glare off those great big towers?”

“Perhaps,” Loki drawled in response, lips twitching faintly. “I have not heard of such a thing, but I in all honesty would not be surprised.”

“You got a point,” Clint muttered, squinting a little. “I need some shades or _I’m_ going to go blind.” Wordlessly, Natasha produced a pair of sunglasses and passed them to Clint, who immediately put them on. “Thanks, Nat.”

“I knew you would forget something,” she shrugged. “After Loki and Thor’s descriptions of this place, I knew you would need them.”

“Still, thanks.”

“I am not comfortable with this,” Bruce mumbled when they started to pass people. Nearly all of them bowed and smiled at Thor, but glared or even spat at Loki. Tony and Steve bracketed the blue-skinned man, glaring back at those who didn’t desist immediately and keeping Loki mainly out of sight between the two of them.

“I don’t particularly like it either, man, but we gotta do it,” Sam muttered back to Bruce.

“What’s the bet that Tony does something to start a fight?” Clint asked Natasha quietly.

“I’m not going to take that bet,” Natasha replied just as quietly. “I don’t think anyone who tries anything with Loki is going to get away without at least a snarky comment from Stark.”

“I just want to go home,” Loki whispered, and Tony squeezed his hand briefly while no one was watching.

“We’ll go home soon, kiddo, but we have to do this. You’ll be okay.”

“You cannot promise that.”  
“Lokes, I’m Tony Fucking Stark. I can promise pretty much anything.” Loki’s lips twitched into a small smile. “Now, relax, let us handle this, and we’ll be home before you know it.”

“If you say so.”

“I do say so.”

King

“I don’t give a fuck who you are or what you’ve done!” Tony snarled at the supposedly imposing figure of the All Father. “I don’t obey you, I don’t have to live by your rules, and you are certainly not _my_ king! If you say anything more that is derogatory about _my son_ , I will strike you down where you stand!”

_A few minutes earlier…._

“So the traitor has returned,” Odin All Father sneered, single eye glaring at Loki in a way so similar to Fury’s glares that Tony was hard pressed not to respond like he usually would. Loki stiffened beside Tony, but the genius reached out and gripped his hand, squeezing gently in reassurance. “I did not give you leave to return to Asgard.”

“You summoned the Avengers,” Tony pointed out coldly, his tone as frosty as Loki’s ice. “Loki is one of us. If you didn’t want to see all of us, you should have summoned specific members.”

“You will speak when spoken to, mortal, most especially when it is in regards to a Jötunn!”

“Oh?” Tony sneered. “And what do you think you can do or say to me to make me obey?”

“Friend Tony, please desist,” Thor asked hurriedly, looking worriedly between Odin and Tony – the glaring match between the two was concerning him greatly. “Father, why did you call us here?”

“I wished to speak with you on the matter of the Chitauri and Thanos, but it seems that will have to wait. I will allow no monster to sit in on such a conversation.”

“In that case,” Bruce spoke up calmly, although his eyes were hard. “We shall leave. If you will not _allow_ monsters to sit in on such a talk, you will be left with only Thor, Sam and Steve.”

“Got that right,” Clint muttered.

“You may stay, mortals. It is only the Jötunn of whom I speak.”

And that was all it took for Tony to completely lose his shit.

“I don’t give a fuck who you are or what you’ve done!” he snarled. “I don’t obey you, I don’t have to live by your rules, and you are certainly not _my_ king! If you say anything more that is derogatory about _my son_ , I will strike you down where you stand! And there is nothing and no one who will be able to stop me.”

“You dare—!” Odin was speechless with rage.

“Yes, I dare,” Tony sneered up at him. As angry as he was, he kept his speech nearly as formal as that of the Asgardians. “I bow to no one, I take orders from those I choose to obey only when I choose to listen, and I will not allow someone to speak ill of those I care for as my own!”

“So you claim this orphan wastrel?” Odin sneered.

“He is not a ‘wastrel’, but yes, I have,” Tony growled. “Clearly if I’m a better option for a parent than you are, you’re doing something wrong!”

“Tony, please,” Loki whispered, gripping tight to the hand still holding his. Touched as he was that Tony claimed him as his son, he was terrified that Odin would kill Tony for his insolence. “Please stop.”

“No, Loki,” Tony bit out. “I am not going to allow you to be abused any longer. Odin is worse than my father and that’s saying something.”

“Almost as bad as mine,” Bruce admitted with a sigh. He was looking decidedly green about the eyes. “Excuse me, I believe it best I leave before I lose control.”

“You may not leave until I give permission!” Odin barked. Bruce went greener.

“I would listen to Bruce if I were you,” Sam spoke up lazily, although he was sidling away warily. He didn’t want to be right in the line of fire – so to speak – when Bruce Hulked out at Odin. “You won’t like him when he’s angry.”

“No one likes him when he’s angry,” Natasha muttered.

“I do,” Clint and Tony spoke up together. Odin was going purple with rage at being ignored.

“CEASE THIS AT ONCE!”

An inhuman roar filled the room following Odin’s yell, Bruce growing in size and turning green as the Hulk was unleashed. Natasha, Sam, Clint and Loki all moved away, while Thor and Steve placed themselves between Odin and the Hulk and Tony stepped up to calm him down.

“Hey, big guy,” Tony tried to draw his attention away from Odin.

 **“Metal man,”** Hulk rumbled. **“White eyepatch man angry. White eyepatch man hurt little blue man.”**

“Yeah, he is and he has. You can’t smash him, though,” Tony warned, one hand resting on the Hulk’s large one. “We kinda need him to stay whole and unbroken.”

 **“No fun,”** Hulk grumbled. **“Where little blue man?”**

“I am here,” Loki spoke up hesitantly, and stiffened as Hulk swept him up instantly, cradling him like a child. “Although I would much prefer to have my feet on the ground.”

**“Little blue man hurt?”**

“No, I am not hurt.”

**“Good.”**

“I think it would be best that we leave now,” Steve interjected. “Your Majesty, if you desire to speak with the Avengers in future, I think it best to make sure you ask for specific members instead of the entire team. Regardless of who you summon, though, it would do you well to remember that Loki is one of us, and we do not take kindly to him being spoken ill of.”

With that, the Avengers left Asgard. Few would ever return willingly, and those who did would do their best to avoid Odin.


	8. Chapter 8

Rescue

He wasn’t sure what made him stop in that particular alleyway on his way back to the Tower, but he was glad he did. There, hidden in the shadows of a dumpster, was a small, soggy box with the words _free kittens_ scrawled near-illegibly on the top. The box was shut, but he had to check anyway.

He had to.

Carefully, hoping that there wasn’t something inside that was going to attack him, he peeled back the flaps of the box lid and peeked inside.

And almost started to cry at what he found.

There, all cuddled together and shivering, were five tiny, damp kittens. And they were all still alive.

Gently and so very, very carefully, he reached into the box and lifted out one of the kittens. He brought it up close to his face as it wriggled and mewled weakly, and checked it over for visible fleas or other parasites. Finding nothing, and being rather surprised that it seemed parasite-free, he placed the kitten carefully in his jacket pocket and reached for the next.

Clint checked each kitten over carefully, placing them all into the same pocket and being extremely gentle with them so as to make sure they went unharmed. Once he had all five squirming little furry jelly beans in his pocket, he slid his hand carefully into said pocket to keep from jostling them too much, and started his walk back to the Tower.

He couldn’t wait to show the others. Hopefully none of them were allergic to cats.

And he really, really hoped that the kittens would survive.

It’d be nice to have some pets about the tower.

Soft

“What in the world are those?!” Tony exclaimed as he entered the living room on the common floor to find Darcy, Clint, Loki and Sam all clustered around what looked to be wriggling, fluffy, oversized jelly beans.

“They’re kittens!” Darcy all but squealed. “Aren’t they cute?”

“…sure?” Tony offered hesitantly, eyeing the kittens like they were about to jump up and bite his nose off.

“Get your butt down here and help us figure out names and genders,” Darcy ordered, and with a heavy, theatrical sigh, Tony complied.

“They are so small,” Loki was frowning confusedly at the little fluff-balls. “Are all felines so small on Midgard?”

“Just the infant domesticated ones,” Sam shrugged at the Jötunn. “The non-domesticated tend to get quite big.”

“Hm,” Loki hummed, as if unsure whether he should believe Sam. He reached out hesitantly, and slid his hand under one of the kittens – a grey tabby. It mewled confusedly for a moment, sniffing at the hand it was now cradled on, and Loki brought it up level to his face. “Its eyes are not quite open.”

“Their eyes stay shut for a few weeks after birth,” Clint explained. “These little guys aren’t quite old enough to be separated from their mother yet. It’s a wonder they aren’t already dead. I don’t know how long they were in that alley before I found them.”

“They are very soft,” Loki muttered, stroking a finger along the kitten’s back delicately.

“Yeah, cats tend to be,” Darcy shrugged. She cooed to the little calico cat that nudged at her fingers. “Oh, you are just too cute.”

“…We’re getting cats, aren’t we?” Tony asked with a sigh as his daughter and sort-of-son doted upon the kittens.

“Yep,” Clint and Sam chorused, cradling kittens of their own, and Tony sighed again.

“Fine.” He picked up the last, a little tortoiseshell, and did his best to hide his smile when it nuzzled at his hands. “JARVIS, call a vet and get some advice on how to look after kittens. We’re gonna need it.”

_“Yes, sir.”_

Patience

“Stop being so impatient,” Bruce scolded Tony, glaring at the hovering genius. “These things take time, and there’s no way to speed it up.”

“But Bruuuuuuce,” Tony whined. Bruce’s glare sharpened, and Tony huffed. “Fine.” He stalked off with his little tortoiseshell kitten in his hands, leaving Bruce shaking his head and going back to his work. Honestly, though, it wasn’t _that_ difficult to make some kitten formula. And it didn’t take that long, either, but Tony was Tony and Tony was always impatient.

Names

“Rusty?”

“No.”

“What about Belle?”

“No.”

“Madora?”

“Where the hell are you getting these names?” Sam asked finally, exasperated.

“Baby name website,” Clint shrugged. He’d named his kitten Lucy, which was a fairly normal name although not one you usually gave a cat. Now he was ‘helping’ Sam come up with names for his kitten.

“You’re so weird. Besides, isn’t Belle a girl’s name? This one’s male.”

“You don’t know your kitten’s gender identity,” Clint said archly, grinning at the flat look he got from Sam. “Fine, fine. So, Rusty’s out.”

“The little guy is black. Not red.”

“Point. Paul?”

“No.”

“Inali?”

“…what does that one mean?”

“It means ‘black fox’.”

“Then no.”

“You’re no fun,” Clint pouted. “Fisher?”

“Maybe.”

“Ayo?”

“What’s it mean?”

“Joyous.”

“Maybe. What else?”

“Not much, really. So, Fisher or Ayo?”

“I’ll think on it. What did Darcy end up deciding on?”

“She went with Misty. Apparently the calico’s colours look like they’re behind mist or some shit like that.”

“Nice. What did Tony go with?”

“I don’t know if he’s actually named it or if he’s just calling it that until he thinks of something, but he called his Cat the other day.”

“You’re joking.”

“I wish.”

“God damn it. What about Loki?”

“Oh my god I don’t even know if I can say it!” Clint complained. “He used some sort of Norse or Germanic name and I have no idea how to say it let alone spell it.”

“I think I’ll go with Ayo,” Sam decided.

“Finally,” Clint grumbled, and dodged the throw pillow Sam aimed at his head.

Fragile

He was terrified of hurting the little creature that relied on him to keep it safe and healthy. It was so tiny, so delicate and breakable, and so susceptible to the cold and damp. He was terrified that he would accidentally kill the poor creature in his sleep due to his magic lashing out during his nightmares.

He had called his kitten Fríðr. He thought it quite suited the little grey tabby, as she had proven herself to be quite a calm yet brave little thing, and the name meant ‘beautiful’ and ‘safe’.

He was still terrified of hurting or killing her by accident. It was a wonder he hadn’t already frozen her.

“Hey, Loki, what’s up?” Darcy asked, noticing the wild-eyed look about the Jötunn.

“It’s nothing.”

“Bullshit. What’s wrong?”

Loki swallowed, looking at the tiny kitten Darcy was feeding for him.

“I am fearful I will hurt Fríðr. She is so fragile and tiny.” Darcy’s stern expression softened, and she moved around the table to hug him tight.

“She’ll be fine, Lokes. You won’t hurt her.”

“But I might!” Loki protested. “What if I panic in my sleep again and freeze her? She will not survive!” Darcy examined his face for a long moment.

“Then she can sleep in with Misty in my room. Most of the time they’ll prefer to sleep together anyway. They’re sisters and babies.”

“…you would keep her safe for me?”

“Of course. She’s just a baby kitty, and if you’re that scared that you’ll accidentally hurt her, then I’ll make sure you won’t. Simple,” Darcy shrugged. She placed Fríðr in Loki’s hands, and plucked up Misty from Loki’s lap to feed her.

“…thank you, Darcy.”

“You’re welcome!”


	9. Chapter 9

War

The Tower was silent. Outside, life and business went on as usual. Inside, however, was another matter entirely. The place looked and sounded abandoned, a distinct lack of workers on the business floors making it even more silent than it usually was on a Sunday. The bottom fifty levels were dark, closed for the day so that Stark Industries workers could have their weekly day off. Level fifty-one and up were usually busy on a Sunday, when the Avengers didn’t get called out of course, but today the floors were as silent as the Stark Industries floors.

It was… eerie.

Suddenly, a great cry rang out on level 54, followed by a panicked screech and nearly hysterical manic laughter. Swearing filled the air as Jane expressed her irritation at having been the first to be taken out of the competition.

“I’ll get you for this, Darcy,” she threatened her cackling former intern.

“And my little dog too?” the cheeky young woman asked, slinging an arm around Peter’s shoulders with a grin.

“Hey!” Peter pouted, protesting the connotation. “If anything, it’s bug, not dog.”

“And your little bug too,” Jane glowered. Cackling madly, Darcy grabbed Peter’s hand and dragged him after her towards the stairwell, all the while thinking of who she would target next.

All was fair in a Nerf war.

Spider

“Kill it! Kill it with fire!” Clint screeched, literally climbing up Thor’s bulky frame to perch on his shoulder precariously. Thor looked somewhere between surprised and confused, but he reached up to steady Clint nonetheless.

“What the hell, Clint?” Peter complained, taking a few steps forward and bending down to scoop up the source of Clint’s distress. “It’s just a cellar spider, you wuss.”

“It’s evil,” Clint hissed, flinching back from Peter and almost falling off Thor’s shoulder in the process.

“It’s barely an inch big, and it’s all legs,” Peter returned dryly. “You are such a wimp.”

“Spiders are evil,” Clint insisted, glaring at the tiny spider on Peter’s hand.

“You do realise you work with _me_ , right? Y’know, _Spiderman_? The dude with spider-like powers?”

“Yeah, but you’re human and when you creep up on me I can actually see and hear you instead of just feeling something on my neck,” Clint pouted.

“You are such a wimp,” Peter reiterated. He left Clint hissing and perched on Thor’s shoulders while he took the tiny spider outside.

Seriously, it’s not like a cellar spider was going to just suddenly attack – their main defence mechanism was vibrating their web so it was harder to detect. And their venom wasn’t at all potent to humans – it barely stung, and only for a few seconds. Peter had been bitten by them when he was a kid, and he’d been itchy for a little bit but that was it.

Clint was just being a big baby.

Amateur

Doctor Doom was causing trouble again. It was nothing too deadly, or even very dangerous really, but it was an irritation that the Avengers would rather have to not deal with. In fact, they would rather not deal with Doctor Doom at all, but since the Fantastic Four were currently out of commission, it fell to the Avengers to protect the civilians.

 _“This is getting ridiculous,”_ Tony complained, Iron Man blasting another couple of Doombots out of the sky. _“It’s so_ easy _.”_

“I know, Tony,” Steve sighed. That was the fourth time the billionaire had said it. “But I would rather that too many of us were out here dealing with this as opposed to not enough of us being here.”

 _“But I’m so_ bored _,”_ Tony whined.

 _“If you don’t shut up I’m going to shoot you,”_ Clint warned, making Steve sigh.

“Clint, Tony, both of you keep quiet unless it’s important.”

_“So me being bored isn’t important?”_

“Tony, shut up.” Steve decapitated another Doombot and rubbed the bridge of his nose as Thor landed beside him and swung his hammer at a second Doombot.

“Are you sure you do not wish for my brother’s assistance?” Thor boomed, swinging Mjolnir in a circle while grinning widely.

“I’m pretty sure we can handle this alone, Thor,” Steve grunted, ducking a Doombot and punching right through its torso.

“Aye, that I do not doubt, but this is tiresome work with little effort needed,” Thor replied.

“…fine. Tony, call in Loki for us.”

_“Can do, Cap.”_

In a matter of moments, Loki appeared beside Steve and Thor. He was wearing his illusionary Aesir skin, which Steve knew took a lot of energy for the Jötunn to keep up for an extended period of time.

Loki glanced at a Doombot as it lunged for him, snorting disdainfully when it exploded a few feet away from him.

“Amateur,” he muttered, and a wave of green magic swept out from his slender form to engulf the entire horde of Doombots. They all exploded in a shower of sparks, leaving metal corpses to be cleaned up. “May I return to my reading now?” Loki asked with a sneer, and Steve rolled his eyes at the Jötunn’s attitude.

“Sure, no problem. Thanks, by the way.”

“As I said, Doom is an amateur,” Loki snorted, and disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared.

Feet

“Wade, stop it.”

“Stop what?”

“You know what. Stop it!”

“I don’t know what you’re on about Petey.”

“Yes, you do. Stop it.”

“You gonna make me?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. Stop it!”

“Make me, Petey.”

“Fine!”

Wade yelped as he found himself tackled off the couch by a tiny eighteen-year-old, pinned down on his front with his arms behind his back and Peter perched on his ass.

“Now stop poking me, damn it!”

“But it’s so much fuuuuuun,” Wade whined.

“No!” Wade pouted into the carpet his face was shoved against, wriggling a little to see if he could dislodge the teen on his back. Peter pressed harder on his arms, stopping him from being able to move anything but his legs.

Hm…

Wade bucked, getting his legs under him, and twisted sharply to one side. Peter lost his grip and went flying with a yelp similar to the one Wade had released earlier, groaning when he landed heavily on the floor.

“Hah!” Wade crowed, jumping to his feet. Peter just groaned. Wade tilted his head, and reached out with one foot to poke Peter again.

“Wade, stop it.”

“Stop what?”

“Don’t start that again!”

“Start what?”

Peter let out a wordless howl of rage, and Wade cackled as he took off to avoid getting beaten up by the enraged teen.

Boredom

“Boooooored,” Clint whined.

“I can taze you if you prefer,” Phil responded calmly.

“Nooo.”

“Then be quiet.”

“But I’m boooooored.”

“Barton.”

“Fine.”

“…just wait ten minutes, and then you can go.”  
“Yay!”

“Don’t make me regret it.”

“Sorry.”

Fallen

Peter wasn’t quite sure when it had happened, and can’t even pinpoint when it started happening. All he knew was that he had fallen for the worst possible person _in the world_ , and he didn’t think there was any way to get rid of the feelings.

(The even worse part was that he didn’t think he _wanted_ to get rid of said feelings.)

Therefore, he was feeling kinda down. He was at least half in love with Wade Wilson, Deadpool, of all people, and he didn’t want to fall out of love with the bastard.

He kinda grew on a person – like mould.

(He was just as annoying as mould too.)

Peter had seen a lot of Wade’s character, had seen him in a multitude of moods and situations, and yet he was still in love with the crazy mercenary.

Perhaps he had inherited his mother’s lousy luck in love. According to Aunt May and Uncle Ben, Peter’s mom had married a man who was all but married to his work, and had fallen pregnant to keep him with her for longer.

They had died before their relationship had completely fallen apart, but all the same, Peter was pretty sure that they wouldn’t have lasted much past his third or fourth birthday as a married couple.

And he was also sure that he had inherited his mother’s luck in love.

Fuck it all.

Caution

She slunk down the hallway, keeping a careful eye and ear out for anyone that might be looking for her. She had to be very, very cautious here, otherwise she could find herself captured.

She paused in a doorway, peeking around the frame and scanning the room. She could see the great big things that she wasn’t allowed to scratch but were perfect for sharpening her claws on, but there were no fleshy limbs hanging off them. Her ears twitched.

“There you are, Fríðr,” her person said, and she squeaked a meow as she was scooped up off the floor. She flailed a little, but then was settled comfortably against her person’s cool chest and started to purr.

She might have been captured, but being captured meant cuddles and pats and food. She was willing to accept a compromise.


	10. Chapter 10

Hearing

“Clint.”

No response.

“Clint!”

Again, no response.

“CLINT!”

Clint continued making his sandwich, completely ignoring the frustrated teenager behind him. Peter growled to himself – which would’ve gotten him teased if anyone heard it, considering it sounded like a kitten or puppy’s attempt at a growl – and reached out to shake Clint’s shoulder.

The archer jumped and spun, knocking Peter’s arm away roughly, and Peter gaped a little at the surprised and startled look on Clint’s face. The look disappeared quickly, though, and Clint gestured to his ears.

“I’m not wearing my hearing aids,” the archer told Peter, his voice a little off compared to usual. “You gotta make sure I see you.” Peter frowned.

“Why aren’t you wearing them?” Hopefully Clint could lip-read.

“I just haven’t put them in yet. I didn’t think anyone else was up and about.”

“Oh, okay.” Peter scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Want me to grab them for you?”

“Nah, I’ll get ‘em in a few minutes. I want to eat first.”

“Okay.” Clint wandered out with his sandwich in hand, and Peter spent a few minutes just staring blankly around the kitchen. “Wait, Clint’s deaf?”

Iron

_“You need not fear us, unless you are a dark heart, a vile one who preys on the innocent. I promise, you can’t hide forever in your empty darkness, for we will hunt you down like the animals you are, and pull you into the very bowels of hell.”_

“What the fuck?” Wanda paused her music.

“It’s a song. I thought it relatable considering what we do.”

“You listen to some freaky shit.”

“No, not really. This is fairly light compared to some of their earlier songs.”

“…again, you listen to some freaky shit.”

“Whatever.” Wanda plugged her headphones into her laptop and pressed ‘play’, leaving Pietro staring at her.

Run

“On your left.”

“Oh, come on, don’t start that again!” Sam protested, getting a grin from the bigger man. Sam scowled, but continued on his morning run. He soon lost sight of Steve, and resigned himself to being lapped by the super soldier.

“On your right.”

“On your left.”

“Hilarious,” Sam muttered, scowling as the two pulled ahead of him easily. Again he lost sight of them fairly early.

“On your right.”

“On your left.”

“For fuck’s sake!” Sam all but howled as both Bucky and Steve overtook him. “Come _on_ , guys!”

“Sorry, Sam!” Steve called back to him, his grin bigger than it had been the first time.

“No you’re not!” Sam shouted to him, getting laughs from both Steve and Bucky.

Maybe he should just quit while he was ahead.

Stealthy

It would take only one wrong move to alert the rest of her housemates to her presence. If she wanted her prank to succeed, she had to make sure that they didn’t notice her making her way from the elevator to the kitchen.

She tiptoed carefully past the living room where Sam, Clint, Pietro and Peter were swearing at the television screen, doing her best not to bump into anything or drop the prank materials in her arms. She made it, and continued creeping towards the kitchen.

“Stealthy you are not,” Loki drawled, leaning against the kitchen doorframe. Darcy froze, and then pouted.

“I thought I was doing pretty well,” she protested with a huff, allowing Loki to take some of her burden for her. “You’re just scarily observant.”

“No, you are just unable to be stealthy,” Loki returned dryly. “I suppose we should avoid using the elevator?”

“Yeah,” Darcy sighed, all but dropping her armload of prank supplies on the kitchen countertop. “Don’t warn anyone, though?”

“Now why would I do that? If they are not observant enough to notice, they do not deserve assistance in avoiding your prank.” Darcy beamed at him.

“You’re the best.”

“I know.”

“Jerk.”

“So you say.”

Muscular

_“Sir, there appears to be something wrong with Master Parker.”_

“What do you mean, J?”

_“He is behaving as if intoxicated, and is being quite… handsy, I believe the correct term to be… with Mister Wilson.”_

“Which Wilson?” Tony frowned. If it was Deadpool, there’d be trouble, but if it was Sam then there was no problem – Sam could be trusted to put Peter safely to bed and not take advantage of the teen being all over him.

_“Wade Wilson, Sir.”_

“Fuck.”

_“Indeed, sir.”_

Tony rushed out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened, skidding to a halt in the entertainment room when he saw what was happening. He was hard pressed not to laugh at the sight.

Wade had backed himself against a wall, and appeared to be attempting to fend Peter off. It was a change from how he usually behaved around Peter – usually he teased and groped the teen until someone chased him off or Peter snapped and beat him up.

Peter was clumsily groping one of Wade’s arms, a stupid smile on his face as he peered up at the much larger man.

“You're reeeally muscular,” Peter slurred. “How come?”

“Uh, mind letting me go, Petey?” Wade stammered in return.

“Don’t want toooo,” Peter pouted. “I bet you could lift me up with one arm. S’not fair.”

“Uh, not much in life is, Spidey. Letting go would be good about now.” Wade turned his head towards Tony. “Stark! Help!”

“What happened to him?” Tony asked instead, still standing in the doorway. This was really quite funny.

“I don’t know! He got back from patrol and was acting weird, and then when I asked him what was wrong he was suddenly all over me! Help!”

“Alright, alright.” Tony strolled across the room, reaching out and putting a hand on Peter’s shoulder. “Hey there, kiddo. What’s up?”

“Toonyyy!” Peter exclaimed, glomping onto the billionaire instantly. Wade looked beyond relieved that he had been released. “Wade won’t tell me ‘bout his muscles.”

“I don’t really think there’s much to tell, kid,” Tony chuckled. He jerked his head towards the door, and Wade took the hint. He bolted, leaving Peter clinging to Tony. “Why the sudden interest?”

“S’not sudden,” Peter mumbled into Tony’s shoulder. “I like ‘im lots.”

“Really now?”

“Mhm. He’s annoying but he’s strong an’ he likes me an’ he protected me when I needed it.”

“Okay. Is that all?”

“Nooo, but you're like my dad so ‘m not telling,” Peter stage-whispered. Tony chuckled.

“Alright then. Let’s get you to your bed so you can sleep this off – whatever it is.”

“Noooo,” Peter whined. “I want Wade.”

“Not right now, kid. C’mon, bedtime.”

“Awwww.”

“Now, kid.”

“You're no fun.”

“Uh-huh. Bedtime, kiddo, or no Wade, ever.”

“I’m going, I’m going. Meanie.”

“Yeah, yeah, kid, whatever.”

“You suck.”

“Uh-huh. Bed.”

“Okay, ‘m going…”

Fear

If there was one thing Bruce Banner feared, apart from losing control and killing someone, it was being captured by Ross’s men.

General Ross had no love or even slight like for Bruce Banner or the Hulk, and Bruce knew that even though there had been no attempts in the past five years to capture the Hulk, the General was still out there just waiting for the chance to bring the Hulk (and therefore Bruce) down.

It wasn’t something Bruce thought of often, and with good reason. Thinking of Thaddeus Ross made him both scared and angry, which was a combination almost guaranteed to bring out the Hulk.

And if he brought out the Hulk outside an Avengers mission, there was a good chance that SHIELD would cease to stand between him and the General.

So he kept a tight lid on his fears, and did his best to ignore the possibility of being captured again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song mentioned in "Iron" is titled "Iron" and is from Within Temptation's album "The Unforgiving".  
> "Run" is inspired by this artwork by Mechinaries - https://mechinaries.tumblr.com/post/83447174783


	11. Chapter 11

Ghost 1

Wanda screamed, falling to her knees as her magic fluctuated around her in scarlet waves of power. Tears streamed down her face, sobs wracking her slender frame as she reached out with shaking hands towards the fallen figures of her sixteen-year-old sons.

“No… no, no, no,” she whimpered, fingers brushing the cold, pale cheek of her silver-haired child. “Thomas, Tommy, please, wake up. Please…” Her other hand tangled with Billy’s wild dark hair. “William, Billy, please, darling, please, wake up…”

“Wanda, we have to go,” Pietro whispered, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“No, I’m not leaving them here,” Wanda objected fiercely, head whipping about so she could glare up at her brother, her twin, with red-rimmed eyes. “They’re my babies, Pietro, I can’t leave them here—” she broke off with a sob, curling over the still bodies of her sons. They might not be biologically hers, not anymore, but they were hers first and hers again now, and she was not leaving them.

“We have to go,” Pietro insisted, tugging his sister up. She screamed again, protesting through her sobs and struggling fiercely as Pietro and then Logan hauled her away. Her boys… her boys were _gone_.

Tears

“Just… just _say something_. Please.” Tears were leaking from the corners of his eyes, sliding down his cheeks silently.

What could he say? What could he _possibly_ say to make this better? There was no way he could think of to put what he felt into words, and Peter wouldn’t let him get anywhere near him to _show_ what he was thinking and feeling.

“Wade… please, just…” Peter’s voice broke off, silence falling between them.

How could Wade have fucked this up before it even really started? Peter was the best damn thing that had happened to him in decades, and he’d managed to somehow fuck it all up in less than a week. That was a new record, even for him.

A noise from Peter had him looking up from his toes, and his heart broke a little at the look on Peter’s face. He reached out, intending to hug the much smaller man – and he was a man now, not a teenager – but Peter flinched away and Wade’s heart broke a bit further.

“Petey…”

“No, Wade.”

The silence between them was heavy with implications, with all that Wade couldn’t say, with all the accusations that Peter couldn’t voice, with all the things they didn’t dare to say aloud.

Wade swallowed the lump in his throat and tried again.

“Peter, please… please don’t leave me.” Wade’s voice, cracked and raw, made Peter flinch again. “I can’t… I can’t manage without you.”

“You managed fine before I came along.” Peter’s voice was flat, cold, and it was Wade’s turn to flinch.

“I _managed_ because I had no choice,” he replied bitterly. “In case you’ve forgotten, I wasn’t exactly sane or well. I’m still not, but… god, Petey, you make it so much better, so much easier to bear.”

Wade wasn’t keen to be rejected again, but he reached out for Peter anyway. This time, much to his relief, Peter didn’t flinch away from him. Instead, Wade was allowed to pull the lithe young man gently into his embrace, and was allowed to bury his face in Peter’s neck as his large, scarred body started trembling.

“Wade…”

“Please, Peter, please, don’t leave me. I can’t live like that again. Please…”

“If you mess up again, I’m gone,” Peter warned. Wade’s breath hitched.

“I’m a fuck up, Petey,” he whispered. “I can’t promise… I can’t promise I won’t mess things up…”

“I mean if you do what you did this past week, idiot,” Peter’s voice was fond and gentle despite his words. “I’m not that much of a bastard.” He kept his voice light, gentle, teasing, and Wade managed a half-hearted laugh, which Peter was kind enough to not point out sounded more like a sob.

Wade was just relieved. Maybe he hadn’t fucked up after all.

Ghost 2

_One year later…_

“Wanda? Wanda, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Steve said worriedly, placing a hand on the woman’s arm gently.

“I… I swear I just saw…” she trailed off.

“Who?” Steve asked gently.

“My sons… my William and Thomas. I swear I just saw them.” She was close to panicking. There was no way – they had been _dead_!

 _‘Ah,’_ a little voice in her mind whispered, _‘but did you check?’_

“Do you want to go see?” Steve asked her kindly. Wanda swallowed.

“Yes. I… I need to know.” She needed to know if she’d _left them_ unconscious and vulnerable on that battleground a year back.

“Alright. Which way?”

Brother

“So, wait, you're saying that Speed is your brother? Like, for real?”

“Yes, Teddy,” Billy sighed, rolling his eyes. “I’ve told you three times. Tommy’s told you twice, that he’s told me.”

“Three times, actually,” Tommy spoke up, grinning at the scowl Hulkling sent his way. “I told you, Billy, he just doesn’t think we’re telling the truth.”

“It’s because you guys have told us about your _very different_ families,” Miss America sighed. “It’s hard to believe you're twins when you’ve also told us that you're not.”

“America,” Billy began, but froze when he looked past her.

“What’s up, Billy?” Tommy frowned, but then looked in the same direction and froze too. The rest of the Young Avengers looked over, and saw only a young brunette woman close to tears and a tall, quite buff blonde man.

“Uh, guys?” America prompted.

“Mom?” the two seventeen-year-old boys chorused. The brunette woman burst into tears and rushed over, sweeping Billy and Tommy into her arms to hug them tightly.

“I thought you were both _dead_ ,” she choked out, sobbing into their hair. Billy just clung back, whereas Tommy looked uncomfortable.

“Uh, yeah, not dead,” he managed. The blonde man with the woman looked a bit sheepish, but at the same time, pleased.

“Hey, Tommy.”

“Hey, Steve. Uh, can you get Mom to… y’know… let us breathe?”

“Sorry, sorry,” the woman laughed tearily, letting go of the two boys and wiping her eyes. “Oh, my boys.” She cupped Billy’s cheek in one hand for a moment, reaching out with the other to comb briefly but gently through Tommy’s wild silver hair. “Oh, I missed you both so much.”

“What’s this about thinking we were dead?” Tommy frowned. “I mean, we woke up around sunset, but you didn’t check that we were _breathing_ or something?”

“I saw you both get shot,” the woman responded, voice hitching on the last word, “Shot by weapons that have been proven to hurt and maim gods. I _thought you were dead_.”

“We’re okay, Mom,” Billy said quietly, speaking up for the first time since the woman had hugged them. “We’re alright. But…” he hesitated, but then forged on. “But why did you leave us there if you thought we were dead?”

“I didn’t do it by choice. Your uncle dragged me away so I wouldn’t get shot too, and then that dickhead Logan knocked me out when I kept trying to get away.”

“So we blame Pietro, got it,” Tommy nodded with a serious expression. The woman cracked a smile.

“Yes, that seems to be the current way of things.” The blonde man – Steve – snorted at her words, and then blushed faintly when all attention turned his way.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

“You’re as awkward as ever, huh Steve?” Tommy grinned.

“Don’t even start with me, kid,” Steve warned.

“Yes, sir!”

“Tommy…”

“Uh, not to interrupt or anything,” America began hesitantly, “But… who are you? And how can you be Billy and Tommy’s mom when you don’t look that much older than us?”

“It’s a long story,” the still unnamed woman sighed. “Why don’t you come back with us, so we don’t air everything on the street?”

“You still haven’t mentioned your names,” America frowned.

“Nor have you,” the woman returned, “But my name is Wanda Maximoff.”

“America Chavez,” the girl responded in turn, “And that’s Teddy Altman,” she pointed at Hulkling. “So where are we going?”

“Not far,” Steve grinned at her, “Just to the Tower.”

“…Tower?”

“This is going to be fun,” Tommy told Billy, who just sighed.

Told

“WADE!” a man shouted furiously, just as Wanda and Steve led the Young Avengers out onto what had become the common floor for the residents of Avengers’ Tower. A tall and muscular man clad in a red and black costume bolted past the startled teens and exasperated Steve and Wanda, cackling madly as a young man with messy brown hair chased after him.

“That’s Wade Wilson and Peter Parker,” Wanda told her sons and guests. “They finally got together a few months ago.”

“After almost two years of dancing around each other,” Tony Stark drawled, capturing their attention. The billionaire was seated on a barstool, a blue-skinned man with red eyes sitting beside him. “Nice to see you two alive, Speedy Gonzales, Scarlet Witch Two-point-oh.”

“Tony,” Steve warned.3

“Yeah, yeah, Cap. Bucky’s in the gym,” he added, and the blonde – now known to be Captain America – blushed faintly before disappearing back into the elevator. “So, you saw Peter and Wade, however briefly. This is Loki,” he waved a hand negligently at the blue man.

“Pleasure,” the alien inclined his head. He slipped off his stool. “I shall go find Darcy, I believe.”

“Bring Bruce up with you,” Tony called after the alien, who waved a hand absently back at the billionaire. “So, who’re the tag-alongs?”

“This is America and Teddy,” Billy introduced Miss America and Hulkling.

“Cool. Let’s take this to the living room, shall we? I’m pretty sure a lot of explaining is needed.”

“Well, that explains the whole ‘we were born to different parents but we’re actually twins’ thing, and the ‘this lady is young enough to be our sister but we call her Mom’ thing,” Teddy said a little faintly.

“Yeah,” America agreed.

“So now that that’s sorted, Billy-boy, you’re dating the big one, right?”

“Tony!” Bruce hissed, elbowing the billionaire as both Billy and Teddy blushed hotly.

“Yeah, they’re dating,” America answered for the couple, amusement clear on her face. “And they’re sickeningly cute.”

“America!” Teddy protested.

“What? It’s true,” the girl shrugged. “And they were gonna find out sooner or later.”

“That doesn’t mean you spill their secret for them,” Wanda chastised gently, a small smile curling her lips. “Although I admit you two do look very good together. I do hope I’m invited to the wedding.”

“Mom!” Billy protested, burying his face in his hands. Wanda giggled, and with that the lingering tension in the room was broken.


	12. Chapter 12

One

_Five…_

Tony buried his face in his hands, shoulders shaking with the force of his suppressed sobs. Bruce was gone, dead and gone and there was nothing that could bring him back. He was _gone…_

“Dad?” Darcy wriggled her way into his arms, wrapping her own around him tightly as he sobbed into her hair. She stroked a hand through his slowly, her eyes sad. Tony loved Bruce kind of like a brother, but also loved him deeper than any familial bond that could be formed and differently than any romantic bond. And now Bruce was gone. Darcy’s eyes teared up at the thought, and she tucked her face into her father’s shoulder as her own tears rolled down her cheeks.

_Four…_

Natasha knocked back a shot of the strongest vodka she could get her hands on, staring blankly at the empty glass before hurling it across the room. It smashed on the opposite wall, and she sank down to the floor with tears running down her face. Her comrades didn’t move, each lost in their own grief, and she grabbed the vodka bottle to drown her sorrows. Clint, her partner and best friend, was gone.

_Three…_

Darcy tugged at her hair and screamed, bursting into heart wrenching sobs as Loki hurried to prevent her from doing herself harm.

“Idiot!” she cried, struggling against Loki’s hold. Tony lay unmoving, eyes still open but staring sightlessly up at the sky.

The hole through his armour and abdomen was something that no magic or technology could fix.

_Two…_

Thor held tight to Steve as the man wept into his shoulder, watching as the casket – empty, as there had been nothing left of Natasha’s small body after the explosion – was lowered into the ground. Of the original six Avengers, only Thor and Steve Rogers remained. Their fellows had fallen to battle, as they had wanted to go.

That did not ease the ache of having lost them.

_One…_

Thor bowed his head, allowing his tears to fall silently as he paid his respects to the graves of his fallen shield-brothers and sister. He wished with all his heart that he could have saved them, that he could have gifted them with the lifespan and endurance of the Aesir as he had done to the remainder of his mortal friends and chosen family, but that gift had been allowed to be given too late for his original fellow Avengers.

“Thor, we have to go,” Loki said quietly, placing a hand on the blonde god’s arm, and Thor raised his head.

“Aye, I know.”

The two walked away, leaving five gravestones behind them.

_Wanda Maximoff raised her head, eyes shining with unrestrained power. Despite her shackles, she lifted from the floor as reality began to distort around her._

_“NO.” She stated, her voice rich with her magic. “IT SHALL NOT END LIKE THIS.”_

_Time reset._


	13. Chapter 13

Broken

He’d lost track of how long he’d been here. It was impossible to count hours or days when there was near constant darkness and irregular food delivery.

They – whoever ‘they’ were – clearly wanted to keep him alive, otherwise he wouldn’t be getting food and water, what little it was. It was enough to keep him alive, but not to keep him healthy and definitely not enough to keep him strong. Whatever they wanted him for, they didn’t need him to be healthy for it, and they didn’t need his speed.

At first he had tried to keep track of time. He’d eaten literally just before he was snatched, so when he started to get hungry he knew it had been at least six hours. But trying to keep track of time by hunger pangs didn’t work when he got fed only just enough to keep him alive. His first ‘meal’ had been slid into his cell hours after his stomach had started trying to eat itself. The next meal had come fairly soon after, but then not again until his stomach was again tying itself in knots. Fairly soon he was constantly hungry, and so that was no longer a way to try to keep track of time. He was given water frequently, but the intervals were as irregular as that between ‘meals’. The lighting in the cell was dim, and didn’t brighten or darken much the entire time he was there.

And then the first beating happened.

He was too weak to fight back, weak from hunger and lack of room to move, and so he simply covered his head and curled in on himself as best he could to try and protect his vital organs. He didn’t know how long it lasted, but when the thugs finally left he could barely move. He hurt all over, and he was sure that he had fractured bones from the kicks and clubs.

He spat out blood carefully, feeling around his mouth with his tongue to check for cuts or loose teeth. The first hit had been a hard punch to the face, hence the blood.

He really hoped that someone had noticed him missing. He didn’t think he would last much longer before breaking, and he still had no idea how long he’d been here or what his captors wanted. He just wanted to go home. He wanted to go home and be hugged by his sister and their chosen family and teased gently for his crush on Sam and he wanted to just be _safe_ again.

He wanted to go home.

Unconscious

“I don’t know how long he’s been out, so I can’t say when he’ll wake up,” Bruce informed Wanda as the woman hovered by her twin’s bedside, her eyes fixed on his thin – too thin – face. “He’ll be alright, though. He _will_ wake up, and then we can set about healing him up properly.”

“Thank you, Bruce,” Wanda murmured, reaching out and lightly touching Pietro’s limp hand. Her beloved twin had wasted away during his captivity, his bones visible and his bruises much more vivid than they would usually be.

“JARVIS is monitoring everything for me, so I’ll know when he wakes up.” Bruce placed a hand on Wanda’s back gently. “He’ll heal, Wanda.”

“I know. I still worry. He is my brother.”

“I know.” Bruce patted her back lightly and then stepped away. “I’ll send someone down with food for you. Please eat it.”

“I will,” Wanda promised, and as Bruce left the Scarlet Witch turned her attention to her unconscious brother. “Wake up soon, Pietro. You have been greatly missed, and by more than just me.”

Pietro slept on.

Bounce

Darcy uttered a war cry as she flung herself onto the beanbag upon which Sam was seated, getting a startled squawk from the man as he went flying. Darcy cackled, wriggling around in the beanbag until she was comfortable.

Sam groaned as he got to his feet, glaring at the girl he considered his best friend. Being bounced off a beanbag _hurt_ , especially when the landing pad was marble flooring, and he would get his revenge. Eventually.

“Stop moping, Falcon, and go see your boy,” Darcy told her best friend. Sam froze, a blush threatening to form.

“What? He’s not my boy,” he denied.

“But you knew exactly who I was talking about,” Darcy smirked at him. “You’ve been pining after him for over a year, dude, so go get him.”

“Darcy,” Sam began, but the girl cut him off.

“No. Don’t even try to think of an excuse. You like him, he likes you, so go get him.”

“There’s just a minor problem with that,” Sam snapped, “and I’d rather not lose a friend because of it.”

“Don’t be such an idiot,” Darcy scowled back at him. “He won’t care you don’t want sex, dumbass. He’s been half in love with you for months.”

“No, Darcy!” Loki walked into the room just in time to hear the tail-end of the argument, and shook his head as he leant down to kiss the top of his girlfriend’s head. Sam stormed out of the room angrily, leaving Darcy pouting.

“Leave him alone, _svass_ ,” Loki murmured, “Not everyone is as brave as you.”

“But I just want him to be happy,” Darcy sighed, tilting her head up and smiling as Loki obliged her by pressing a light, chaste kiss to her lips. “He loves Pietro, Pietro’s at least half in love with him, and I know that they’ll be happy together so I don’t get why Sam doesn’t at least try.”

“Because he has been hurt before, _svass_ , and more often than most. Let them figure it out in their own time,” he added, and Darcy sighed.

“Fine,” she grumbled as she burrowed down into the beanbag. Loki smiled down at her lovingly and kissed her forehead again, then continued on his way to whatever it was he had been heading off to do.

Darcy stayed in her beanbag and plotted, lifting Misty up onto her lap when the cat strolled over and nudged at her leg. She had to figure out a way to get Sam and Pietro to talk to each other.

Lure

“You are plotting,” Natasha stated, frowning at Darcy. The younger woman jumped a little in her seat, blushing as the attention of the rest of the ladies of the Tower turned her way.

“What is it this time?” Jane wanted to know.

“I’m not plotting,” Darcy denied.

“Liar,” Wanda, Pepper, Jane and Natasha chorused.

“That’s freaky,” Darcy informed them.

“Don’t change the subject,” Pepper responded. “I’ve worked for Tony for over fifteen years, and your plotting face is the same as his. What’s going on?” Darcy sighed.

“Sam is being stubborn. I know he’s head over heels for Pietro, but he won’t say or do anything about it. So I’m trying to figure out a way to get them to just talk to each other.”

“Pietro is smitten,” Wanda admitted. “He adores Sam.”

“Everyone knows that, except Sam and possibly Steve and Tony,” Jane giggled. “Thor asked me the other day why they aren’t courting, as he put it.”

“Because Sam thinks that Pietro will lose interest when he finds out that Sam’s ace,” Darcy sighed.

“And Pietro thinks Sam considers him a child,” Wanda added.

“Ace?” Jane asked with a frown.

“Asexual,” Darcy elaborated. “Like me.”

“Oh, right.” Jane blushed at the fond looks the other women sent her way. “Sorry, it’s been a long week.”

“We know,” Natasha assured her. “So,” she turned back to Darcy, “You need to lure the two of them into the same room and make them talk, yes?”

“Yep,” Darcy nodded, “Although I don’t know how to make them talk once I get them in the same room.”

“Pietro is still recovering, so it would be best to get Sam to visit him,” Wanda mused. “And Pietro reacts oddly to painkillers – he tends to become very cheerful and speak the truth without censorship.”

“So all we have to do is get Sam in the room and then stop him from leaving before Pietro can confess, basically,” Darcy grinned.

“Leave that to me,” Pepper’s lips curled into a smirk as she spoke. “Few can ignore me, and JARVIS usually goes along with my plans.”

“You are the _best_ ,” Darcy declared, and the five ladies of Avengers Tower laughed as they raised their drinks in a toast.

It was so on.

Perfect

“Sam, could you take this down to Pietro for me? I just got an urgent call into the office,” Pepper explained hurriedly as she handed off a box to the startled man. “If Wanda isn’t in the room with him, just leave it under the bedside table and she will help him with it later.”

“Uh, okay, sure,” Sam managed, and with a kiss to his cheek and a shouted ‘thank you’ over her shoulder, Pepper was gone. “Damn it.”

Looks like he had no choice.

Not that he didn’t want to see Pietro or see for himself how he was doing, but every time he saw Pietro he was hard-pressed not to just blurt out a request for a date. Not the best time to ask when Pietro was still confined to a hospital bed for the most part.

Resigned to having to bite his tongue and rush out of the room as soon as he’d handed off the box, Sam stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the floor on which the infirmary was located.

When he stepped into Pietro’s room, the mutant was alone and looking both bored and sulky. Sam cleared his throat to announce his presence, and Pietro’s head shot up. His expression immediately brightened and a grin formed on his face.

“Hi, Sam!” he greeted brightly, and Sam couldn’t help but smile back.

“Hi, Pietro. How are you doing?”

“I’m alright, could be better but the painkillers are the good ones so I can’t actually feel a lot of the injuries right now.”

“That’s… good? Pepper sent me down with this,” Sam added quickly, hefting the box. “I’ll just put it over here for later.” He set it down beneath the bedside table as Pepper had instructed. “Good to see you looking better,” he rushed to say, and then turned to leave.

“…did I do something wrong?” Pietro’s voice was small. Sam turned back around, confused.

“What? No… why?”

“You're always rushing to leave the room when I’m there, unless there’s a heap of other people around. Did I do something wrong?”

“No! No, you didn’t,” Sam hurried to reassure him. Pietro looked suspicious. “I swear, Pietro, you’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Then _why_?” Pietro sounded desperate. “Why won’t you talk to me anymore? You always used to sit and speak with me when we both had nothing to do, but now you’ll barely stay in the room five minutes if I’m alone.”

“Pietro…” Sam broke off and sighed, moving to sit in the chair beside the younger man’s bed. “It’s nothing you’ve done, I swear. I just…” Sam hesitated.

“Don’t lie to me,” Pietro said miserably. “You can’t even think up a good lie. Just tell me what I did.”

“You didn’t do anything!” Sam snapped. Pietro blinked, startled. Sam sighed again. “It’s just…”

“Was I really obvious, then?” Pietro mumbled, ducking his head as a blush formed on his cheeks. “I was trying so hard not to let you see how much I like you when you barely tolerate me.”

“I don’t ‘barely tolerate you’, you idiot,” Sam growled. “I’m half in love with you!”

Both men froze at the words that had escaped the older one’s mouth.

“…you are?” Pietro asked timidly. Sam sighed and rubbed at his eyes.

“Yeah, I am. I just didn’t think you were interested.”

“I am! I really, really am,” Pietro laughed, the sound filled with relief. Sam couldn’t help but return the smile. “So, when I get out of here, could we maybe…?”

“Date?” Sam offered, although he was still worried, and Pietro nodded. “Yeah, I’d really like that.”

“Perfect,” Pietro’s smile widened. But then he frowned. “Something else is bothering you, though.” Sam flinched a little, lowering his gaze to his hands.

“Uh, yeah. I’m uh… I’m asexual, so…” he trailed off, expecting questions.

“Oh, okay. That’s fine, I’ve never really had much of a sex drive anyways.” Sam’s head jerked up and he stared at the silver-haired man in surprise. Pietro grinned at him. “Bit of a shock huh?”

“I’m just used to people asking a bunch of questions when I tell them,” Sam admitted. He hesitated a moment, but then reached out and took hold of Pietro’s hand. The other man returned the grip, albeit a little weakly.

“Well it’s a good thing I’m up to speed with it all, isn’t it?” Pietro joked lightly. He gave Sam’s hand a brief squeeze. “I like you a lot, and I don’t care if we never even kiss, I just want to be with you.”

“You are so corny,” Sam laughed, but he leaned forwards and pressed a brief, chaste kiss to Pietro’s lips. The silver-haired man was blushing when Sam pulled back. “And the blushing thing is adorable.”

“Shut up,” Pietro muttered, but returned Sam’s smile with one of his own.

Having watched and listened to the entire thing via the security feed, Darcy and Pepper high-fived while Wanda did a happy dance behind them. Natasha was smiling and Jane was laughing, all five women happy that the two men had finally gotten their acts together.


	14. Chapter 14

Fight

Peter was crouched in a corner, back to the rest of the world as he focused on the shivering little bundle in front of him.

“Hey there,” he called softly, keeping about a metre between himself and the little one who had backed himself or herself into the corner so thoroughly. “I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to check you're okay.”

“Go ‘way,” the little one mumbled, sniffling a little. Peter shook his head.

“Not going to happen, kid. I need to know you're alright.”

“’m fine. Go ‘way.” Peter sighed. He sidled closer and reached out, grasping the one visible arm of the child he had been keeping an eye on for the last week. “Lemme go!”

The child’s struggles were pitifully weak, despite their obvious terror, and Peter easily tugged the kid out of their corner and into his arms tightly.

“Easy, kid, easy,” Peter soothed, cradling the child gently but firmly. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to get you checked out by a doctor.”

“No doctors!” the child all but sobbed, and Peter froze in his place as the visible skin started to change colour and composition.

“Oh, kid,” Peter sighed. “Your folks kick you out ‘cause of the X-gene?” he asked. The child froze, but then looked up with wide colour-changing eyes. Peter couldn’t be sure, but he thought the child might be a girl.

“…you know?”

“Not hard to guess with you changing colour like a chameleon,” Peter shrugged. The child started struggling again. “Hey, calm down!”

“You're gonna put me in a cage,” the child accused.

“What? Hell no, not a chance,” Peter denied vehemently. “My partner’s a mutant too, kid, I’m not gonna hurt you or whatever the hell you're thinking.”

“…your partner?”

“Yeah, his name’s Wade. I’m Peter. What’s your name?”

“…Kriti.”

“Well, Kriti, it’s nice to meet you.”

“…same, I guess. Your partner’s like me?”

“Kinda. Well, not really. He’s one of a kind, really. But he’s got the X-gene too. Do you want to meet him?”

“…okay.”

“Awesome.” Peter stood up, still holding the child – Kriti – carefully in his arms. “We’re not far from where I live. I think Wade will like you. Not sure if you’ll like him, though, he’s a bit weird,” Peter added in a mutter. Kriti giggled quietly, and only for a moment, but it was a laugh and it made Peter beam. The kid was going to be alright.

Hush

“Peeeteeeey~!” Wade carolled as he bounded into the rooms he shared with his lover, wide grin on his face beneath his mask.

“Shut up, Wade!” Peter hissed, appearing out of nowhere (not literally) and clamping a hand over the mercenary’s mouth. Wade froze, and Peter tilted his head to the side a little as he listened carefully. When no sound was forthcoming, Peter relaxed and released his hold over Wade’s mouth. “Sorry. Welcome home,” he added, smiling up at Wade. The mercenary removed his mask, frowning a little at Peter.

“What the hell was that about?”

“I… damn it. So there’s been this kid I’ve been watching out for this past week, and today I found out that she’s a mutant that got kicked out of home when she started showing her ability, so I brought her back here to clean her up and give her some food,” Peter rushed out. Wade blinked a few times as he processed that, and then the merc sighed and tugged Peter into his arms to hug him.

“You are such a softie,” Wade grumbled as Peter’s arms wrapped around him in turn. “So what’s the kid’s name?”

“Kriti. And so are you, otherwise you would’ve told me to kick her out already,” Peter added, and Wade rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah. So the kid’s sleeping?”

“She was before you got here, and hopefully still is. Poor kid’s been on the streets for months.”

“Damn. She okay?”

“She will be. I’m gonna ask Bruce to check her over later.”

“Good.” Wade nuzzled Peter’s neck lightly. “What’s for eating?”

Peter rolled his eyes.

Luxury

There were no cats in the world as lucky or pampered as the five that lived in luxury in Avengers’ Tower.

They had been rescued by an Avenger as kittens, and had each been adopted by a resident of the Tower.

Cat the tortoiseshell belonged to Tony Stark, and although the man could barely look after himself he had proven to be a wonderful owner and carer for the little tortie, despite the terrible name he had given her.

Fríðr the grey tabby belonged to Loki, and although the runt Jötunn was terrified of hurting his tiny cat, he had proven to be a caring and gentle owner.

Ayo the black (and only) male of the litter belonged to Sam Wilson, a.k.a. the Falcon, and was a perfect companion for the kind man, who doted upon his cat like he did his friends.

Lucy was Clint Barton’s cat, and it was obvious when the little mostly-white female took to lurking in the vents and dropping out of them at random to scare the other residents. Natasha scolded Clint for teaching his cat bad habits, but everyone could see that she was amused with the way the kitten had taken after its owner.

Misty the calico was doted upon by Darcy Lewis, and took to following the troublemakers of the Tower around on silent paws to startle them at the worst times, much to the amusement of Pepper Potts and Phil Coulson. Darcy was less amused, but still loved her cat dearly.

All five cats were fed only the best food and were given the run of the residential floors of the Tower, and despite their rough start at life were the most well-treated cats in the world.

Funhouse

“No.”

“Oh, come _on,_ don’t be a baby.”

“Taunts will not change my mind – I am _not_ going in there.”

“Peterrrr!”

“No, Wade!”

“Papa, why not?”

“Because I hate funhouses, kiddo.”

“But _why_?”

“Because I got stuck in one when I was little,” Peter admitted grudgingly. “And there was a psycho killer masquerading as a clown at the time, and he almost got me.”

“You're kidding,” Wade said finally. Kriti was clinging to Wade’s neck and staring at Peter with wide eyes, as if begging him to laugh and say he was joking.

“I’m serious. So can we not?”

“…fine,” Wade huffed. “Kriti, where do you want to go?”

“I want to go see the butterfly lady,” the little girl announced. Peter smiled, taking the girl from his partner’s arms and setting her on the ground gently.

“Lead the way, sweetheart.” Kriti smiled up at her adoptive parents and grabbed each of them by the hand, tugging them along behind her as she hurried towards the butterfly keeper.


	15. Chapter 15

Differences

There was something… off… with Loki lately. Darcy wasn’t quite sure what it was, but she was starting to worry. Last time there had been something wrong with Loki, it had been that his poor excuse for a father (Odin) had stripped away the illusion making Loki look as an Aesir did, causing all the issues Loki had with his race being brought forcefully to the surface both figuratively and literally.

Darcy didn’t know what could cause something similar.

“Loki? Lokes, are you alright?” Darcy called into the bathroom. Loki didn’t respond immediately, but he did respond.

“…I am well,” he said finally. “For the moment, at least.” He opened the bathroom door, and Darcy raised an eyebrow at her partner. “This may take a while to explain.”

“I’ve got all day,” Darcy assured him. “C’mon, let’s go cuddle and you can tell me what’s up.” Loki smiled faintly and allowed Darcy to drag him over to the bed they shared.

“I have known all my life that I was different to most Aesir, and when it was revealed I was Jötunn I took that to be the entire reason. When I discovered I was a runt, however, and had been left in a temple, I decided to do some research,” Loki began. He paused, as if unsure how to continue.

“Go on, babe,” Darcy urged, stroking a hand through his black hair. Loki took a deep breath to steady himself.

“I looked into Jötunn as a species, and I discovered that gender is a much different concept with them,” he said quietly. “Those born small are often left in a temple for three days and three nights so as to allow the natural magicks of Jötunheimr to assist in the choosing of the child’s gender. The Jötnar have three genders,” he explained to Darcy’s inquisitive noise. “Those of the third gender, the one other than male and female, are always undersized and always command seíðr – magic, if you will – with high levels of skill.”

“So you're… you're saying that you're one of the third gender?” Darcy asked curiously.

“Yes.” Loki braced himself for rejection.

“Okay.”

“…what?”

“I said okay,” Darcy shrugged. “Lokes, you know I don’t care about gender, right? I mean, I told you about my friend Lex, didn’t I?”

“The one whom is neither male nor female?”

“Exactly. Lex is third-gender, meaning they don’t identify as male or female but as a third gender outside that binary – the binary is bullshit anyway, but I won’t get into that,” Darcy shook her head to get her thoughts back on track. “Anyway, third gender. You're it. Do you want me to change pronouns?”

“I am used to referring to myself as male,” Loki shrugged.

“Okay then. So, why are you telling me now, and what’s the problem that it’s causing?”

“…Jötunn of the third gender have heats and can become pregnant during that time.”

“Oh. Well, that was a bit unexpected.” Darcy thought about it for a moment, still stroking her hand through Loki’s hair. “Let me guess, you’ve got a heat coming up and need to find a partner for it?”

“I can make it through unassisted,” Loki shook his head. Darcy used her hand in his hair to make him look at her.

“Loki. Do you want to find a partner for your heat?” she asked seriously. Loki stared at her with wide red eyes, but then shut them tight and shook his head. “Do not lie to me.” A tear leaked out from the corner of one eye, and Darcy dipped her head to kiss it away gently. This conversation was clearly distressing her beloved, but she had to know and had to let him know that she was accepting of _all_ of him. “Loki, if you need or want to find a partner for your heat, I’m more than happy to help you find someone,” she said gently. “If that partner wants to hang around and you want them to hang around, and they can deal with being in a triad relationship, I’m open to that too.”

“You are?”

“Yep. As long as I’m kept updated and you don’t go sneaking off with someone without me knowing.”

“Such a thing is unheard of in Asgard,” Loki muttered.

“Good thing we’re in Midgard then,” Darcy smiled down at him. “Now, is there someone you’ve been eyeing up? ‘Cause if so, I want to meet them and suss them out.”

“…maybe.”

“That would be a yes. So, who is it?” Much to her surprise and her delight, Loki blushed and ducked his head. “Ooh, now I _have_ to know!” Loki shook his head frantically, and Darcy’s cheeky smile softened. “Loki, sweetheart, please tell me.”

“…Barton.” Darcy giggled at the tiny declaration.

“You are adorable,” she informed him, dropping a kiss to his forehead. “And I can see why you’re attracted to him. I have to admit, I like him a lot.”

“As do I, but I did not wish to act upon it as I love you.” Darcy smiled softly at the declaration, pressing another kiss to the top of her Jötunn’s head.

“Love you too, babe. Do you want me to speak to him first?”

“Please?”

“Sure thing. I’ll talk to him in the morning, okay?”

“Mhm.”

Timid

“Hey, Clint, can I speak with you for a minute?” Darcy asked the archer cheerfully when she encountered him, Natasha and Phil in the living room. He looked up at her and tilted his head to the side a bit.

“Sure. Whereabouts?”

“My study okay? It’s more a store room than anything, but whatever. That good with you?”

“Sure.”

“So what’s this about?” Clint asked when the door to Darcy’s study closed behind them.

“Loki being an adorably shy little Jötunn, the differences in Jötunn biology to human or Asgardian, and some other stuff,” Darcy rattled off cheerily. Clint raised an eyebrow at her, and she gestured to a chair. “Take a seat.”

“Explain, please?”

“Sure. So, Jötunn have a third gender other than male and female, and it turns out Loki’s one of them. He’s got a heat coming up, and as much as I love him I can’t force myself to have sex with him to alleviate it. He needs a male partner anyways, I think.”

“Hold up,” Clint interrupted. “Before you say anything else, let me just ask a few questions.”

“Go ahead.” Darcy leaned back against her desk and waited for Clint to organise his thoughts.

“You're going to ask me to have sex with your boyfriend to get him through some sort of animal-like heat?”

“Pretty much.”

“What does Loki think of this?”

“Remember me saying he’s adorably shy? He couldn’t even look me in the eye when I was asking him if he had any preferences as to who would help him with his heat. He was blushing and everything and he asked me to speak with you before he did. It was so cute.”

“…I can kinda see the blushing and that,” Clint admitted. “So he wants me specifically?”

“Yep.”

“And you're okay with this?”

“Yeah.”

“Really?” The archer was sceptical.

“Yes. Clint, I’m asexual, you know that, right?”

“Yeah…”

“When I was eighteen and realised that sex didn’t interest me at all, I decided that if I ever got into a serious relationship with someone and they needed or wanted sex, I would let them go to someone else for it as long as they were honest with me about it. Loki _needs_ this during his heat, otherwise it’ll last even longer than it should and he’ll be in pain. He didn’t want to ask, but I pushed him to tell me who he’s had his eye on and told him flat out that if he wants sex then he can go for it.”

“So basically, you’re asking me to sleep with your boyfriend for his own sake?”

“Well, yeah. Although really I’m asking you to fuck him into the mattress as often as he wants or needs.” Clint was silent for a long moment.

“And what about you?”

“What do you mean?”

“What’s your side of it all?”

“I want Loki happy and healthy. And…” Darcy trailed off, drawing up her courage. “And to be honest, I think that Loki would be happy with the both of us. He loves me, but he’s got feelings for you too and I have to admit I can see why and I can understand… and I kinda got feelings too.”

“Feelings.”

“Yeah.”

“Not just lust on his part?”

“Nope. Not if his blushing and stuttering was anything to go by.” Clint eyed her, and she fidgeted.

Then she squeaked when the archer tugged her down onto his lap, wrapping an arm around her waist. She relaxed a moment later, leaning her head against his strong shoulder.

“So, what you’re saying is, you want a polyamorous relationship with Loki and me. Like you and me as well as me and Loki and you and Loki.”

“Well…” Darcy trailed off. “Yeah. Are you… open to that?”

“Give me a day or two to fully wrap my head around it,” Clint murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, “But I think I am, yeah.”

“Awesome.”

Silence fell for a few minutes.

“So, Loki is shy.”

“Ohmygod he _is_ and it is so fucking adorable, you have no fucking idea. I swear he was blushing so hard I thought he was about to spontaneously combust. It was so fucking cute I almost _died_.”

Clint laughed.


	16. Chapter 16

State

Tony wandered onto the communal floor for the weekly Avengers and Co. Movie Night with a frown on his face.

“So does anyone know why my daughter’s rooms are locked to everyone?”

“Don’t ask what you probably don’t want to know,” Natasha said calmly, turning a page in her magazine. Everyone else looked at her.

“You know why Darcy didn’t come to the labs this morning?” Jane wanted to know.

“Yes.”

“Would that be linked to the reason I haven’t seen Barton all day?” Phil asked coolly.

“Probably.” Another page was turned. Natasha was still not looking up from her magazine.

“Is Loki involved?” The question came from Pepper that time.

“Definitely.”

“Why won’t you tell us?” Peter whined.

“Because you don’t want to know,” Natasha repeated. The elevator opened with a _ding_ before anyone else could speak, and everyone in the room turned to see who would enter the room.

It was Darcy, looking tireder than anyone had seen her before.

“Hey, guys,” she greeted with a yawn and a little wave.

“Hello Darcy,” Natasha returned the greeting, as everyone else was too surprised to speak. The spy rose to her feet. “How are they?”

“Tired and dehydrated,” Darcy shrugged. “And they’re hungry now. I just came to get supplies. I don’t know how long their breaks will be.”

“Would you like help?”

“Nah, the state Loki’s in, I think if anyone other than me walks in they’ll get frozen to the wall at the very least.”

“I see.”

“What ‘state’?” Tony demanded. Darcy turned to look at her father.

“You don’t want to know,” she told him flatly. “And to be honest, I don’t want you to know. The only reason Natasha knows is because I needed someone to know who isn’t involved.”

“That’s not helping!” Tony wailed. Bruce patted Tony on the back when the billionaire dropped into the seat beside him in a slump.

“Dad, chill,” Darcy ordered. “JARVIS will let you know if something’s wrong, okay? But until I say otherwise, everyone has _got_ to keep away from my rooms.”

Tony whimpered as Darcy turned and left, and Natasha started to laugh quietly at the looks on everyone else’s faces.

It was fun being the only one in the know.

Fast

Darcy looked up from her book when she heard the bed sheets rustling. Clint and Loki had been dead to the world for the past eight hours, and when they hadn’t woken up after three Darcy had guessed that Loki’s heat was over.

“Hey,” she murmured when she saw Clint’s eyes open. He blinked sleepily at her, and she smiled. “Thirsty?” Clint nodded, and Darcy set aside her book to grab a water bottle for the archer. “Here.” He took it and drank most of it in one go, passing it back when he was done.

“How long have I been out?”

“About eight hours this time. I think it’s over for now.”

“For now?”

“Well, heats are seasonal, right?”

“Oh, right.” Clint looked – and sounded – embarrassed. He scratched at the back of his head, shifted, and then winced. “I think my dick’s broken.”

“If it is, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Darcy replied dryly. “You two would go at it for a few hours, sleep for two or three, and then after you’d eaten and had something to drink you’d be back at it again.” Clint blushed, vaguely recalling Darcy’s hands on him at some stage during the hazy days of Loki’s heat.

“You stayed the entire time, didn’t you?”

“I wanted to make sure that Loki didn’t break you trying to get what he needed,” Darcy shrugged, casual as can be after having seen and heard Loki and Clint going at it for days. “I almost had to drag him off you a couple of times, and you needed help getting to the bathroom a few times, but thankfully I didn’t need to forcibly separate the two of you.”

“Thank you, Darcy,” Loki’s hoarse voice said softly, and Darcy leaned over Clint to brush a kiss to Loki’s forehead.

“You're welcome, babe. Drink some water, use the bathroom, and then I expect the two of you to eat a decent meal before you go back to sleep.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Clint snarked, getting a flat look from the woman before she snorted and waved a hand at him.

“Go on, before I hit you with a pillow or something. Shower, dress, eat, and then you can go back to sleep.” Clint rolled out of the bed and ambled over to the bathroom, leaving Loki in the sex-scented bedsheets, blushing furiously.

“How long did it last?” he asked hesitantly.

“Three days. So it took less time than you thought,” Darcy stroked Loki’s wild hair back from his face and kissed his lips chastely.

“It was over fast,” Loki mumbled, resting his forehead against Darcy’s. “It’s never been over so fast before.”

“It’s a good thing, though, right?”

“Yes, I believe so. You said something about food?”

“After you shower,” Darcy said mock-threateningly. “Go join Clint if you don’t want to wait. I’ll get the sheets changed and Natasha will bring down some food.”

“You are a blessing, Darcy Lewis,” Loki said fervently, and disappeared into the bathroom.

Guard

Natasha stood in the doorway to the entertainment room, one of three parts of the common floor that was actually sectioned off instead of open like Tony preferred his floor plans to be. Her arms were folded, her glare warning off those who would approach.

“Natasha, mind telling me why you're standing guard to that particular room?” Phil asked mildly, Wanda having fetched him to prevent the redheaded spy from shanking Tony next time the billionaire attempted to get past her.

“I do mind, yes,” the redhead replied coolly. Her arm lashed out and grabbed Tony by the back of the shirt when he tried again to sneak past her. He stilled with a yelp.

“Nat, it’s alright,” Clint’s voice called from inside the entertainment room. “You can stop going all ‘sentinel’ on their asses.” Natasha scowled, but released Tony’s collar and turned to stalk into the entertainment room. Curious, the rest of the Tower’s residents followed.

On one of the huge, comfortable beanbags, Loki, Clint and Darcy were curled up together in a way that was decidedly intimate. Natasha seated herself in one of the single armchairs beside the beanbag, levelling her stern glare at the others.

“Nat, stop it,” Darcy rolled her eyes. “I told you, they wouldn’t have come up here if it wasn’t over.”

“I am not willing to risk it,” Natasha responded tersely. “Especially considering the heightened sense of smell some of the Tower’s residents have.”

“I assure you, Natasha, the pheromones have completely dissipated,” Loki sighed. “And even if they had not, Darcy has her Taser and Clint his knives.”

“What the fuck?” Tony blurted. “Where the hell have you guys been and what’s going on?!”

“You do not want to know what has been happening, Stark,” Natasha frowned at him. “Trust me. I did not want to know, and yet I do.”

“That’s just teasing!” Tony pouted. Darcy sighed, glancing at Loki and Clint and getting short nods from each.

“Loki goes through a heat once every three years. This time, he had help to get through it, that help being Clint. Any questions that aren’t about details?”

“Why were you there if it was the two of them sexing it up?” Sam asked while the rest spluttered. Darcy gave him a squinty-eyed look to judge his seriousness, but he was clearly just curious.

“Because if Clint couldn’t keep up I would’ve had to haul Loki off him and lock him in a different room while Clint recovered,” Darcy said bluntly, making Loki blush faintly and Clint snigger into Loki’s shoulder. “Oh, shut up, Clint, I said ‘keep up’ not ‘keep it up’.”


	17. Chapter 17

Ability

“Uh, Wade?” Peter called warily.

“What?” the mercenary poked his head around the doorframe, and froze. “Oh, shit.”

“Yeah. What the fuck?”

“I have no idea! It’s not supposed to be able to do that!”

“What the hell, Wade!”

“I’m sorry! I’ll take it out!”

“You’d better. What if it got Kriti?”

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah.”

“Going!”

Wade grabbed the levitating, drooling Venus fly trap, and booked it out of the Tower as fast as he could.

There was no way that a Venus fly trap should have the ability to levitate and produce acid drool. It was just a normal plant!

Well, that was what the guy in the yellow HAZMAT suit told him when he sold it to him… maybe he should’ve taken the HAZMAT suit as a sign that it wasn’t a normal plant.

Oh well.

Puppet

“We are _not_ watching Pinocchio,” Darcy declared vehemently. All eyes turned her way, and she raised an incredulous eyebrow at them. “Do I need to remind you how many people might be triggered by some of the stuff in that? I know it’s just a cartoon, but still.”

“Oh, right,” Tony looked more than a little sheepish that he’d forgotten. “So what do you think we should watch instead?”

“How about something a bit older? And not necessarily Disney,” Jane suggested.

“…Wizard of Oz?” Pepper put forward. There were multiple sounds of approval and agreement.

None of them would ever know how close they had come to a major disaster, or that they had managed to avoid it just by Darcy protesting against a movie about a stringless puppet.

Tree

“Guys, what is a tree doing in the middle of the gym?” Clint complained as he entered the entertainment room on the communal floor.

“What?”

“There’s a big-ass tree in the gym.”

“There shouldn’t be,” Tony frowned, pulling up the security feed and then staring dumbly at the proof that yes, there was indeed a tree in the middle of the gym.

“Well, at least it’s in a pot?” Darcy offered.

“There is that,” Tony managed, voice faint. “Uh, someone mind going to move that? Take it to the empty lab on the floor above mine, please.”

“I shall move this for you, Man of Iron,” Thor boomed.

“Thor, inside voice, and call me Tony,” Tony scowled at the thunder god, rubbing his ears. Thor had been right next to him when he spoke.

“My apologies, friend Tony,” Thor said in a much quieter voice. “I shall move the tree for you now.”

“Thanks, big guy.”

Later, the tree would vanish into thin air, leaving the occupants of the Tower confused and wary.

(In an alternate universe, a scientist cackled as her teleportation device was proven to work just as she had planned.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> only a short one this time... ah well


	18. Chapter 18

Confidential

“What I’m about to tell you is being told in the strictest confidence,” Darcy told Natasha softly, eyes darting around in search of eavesdroppers.

“No one is listening, Darcy, I have checked,” Natasha told her, slightly amused. “What is this news of yours?”

“Loki’s pregnant,” Darcy blurted. Natasha froze, eyes widening just enough to show her surprise.

“…repeat that? I could have sworn you just said that Loki is pregnant.”

“That’s what I said. Loki’s pregnant. Turns out that the reason his heat was so short was because he got knocked up pretty much straight away.”

“…how is Clint handling the news?”

“He was in shock when I left, but I had to tell someone who knew about the heat from the start. It was either you or Bruce.”

“You do realise you will have to tell Bruce so that he can monitor the pregnancy?”

“Well yeah, but I wanted to tell you first.”

“How is Loki taking it?”

“He was terrified at first – he thought Clint and I would freak out and leave him – but I already knew it was a possibility so I wasn’t as shocked as Clint was. Loki’s really warming up to the idea now, though. He was practically glowing when I left our rooms to meet up with you.”

“The happy glow will only last until the morning sickness begins,” Natasha smirked.

“I don’t even know if he’ll get the morning sickness – he’s not human, after all.”

“Very true.” The two women sat in silence for a minute, and then Darcy started snickering into her cocktail. “What?”

“Want to be there when I tell Dad he’s going to be a grandfather?”

Natasha started to laugh.

Obey

“I do wish you would just listen to me from time to time,” Frigga snapped at her husband, staring him down as he turned a glare her way. She refused to be cowed by him, especially when it came to a matter such as this. Odin would not stand between her and her child again.

“Are you to disobey me, wife?”

“If I must,” Frigga drew herself up to her full height, allowing her magic to shimmer into view where it cloaked her entire form. “You will not stand between me and my son. Not again, and certainly not now.”

Odin flinched back from his queen, suddenly very aware of just how angry he had made her and how powerful she truly was. Because she tended to rein in her magic, he tended to forget just how much power the Mother of All wielded. It was equal to, if not greater than, the power which the All Father wielded.

“Very well, wife.” Frigga allowed a smile.

“Thank you, husband.”

None could miss the cold anger in her tone.

Mother

It was difficult to miss the sound of the Bifrost. As soon as it was heard, the residents of the Tower hurried to the communal floor. On the balcony outside, the Rainbow Bridge was visible for a few seconds before it vanished, leaving behind a regal woman clad in a blue gown and silver-gold armour.

“Mother,” Loki whispered, and Frigga smiled at him as she stepped into the Tower proper. She held out her arms, and her blue son all but flew into her embrace.

“My little Loki,” Frigga murmured in greeting, so very pleased to hold her son again. She pulled back to cup one of his cheeks in her palm. “It is so good to see you so happy, my darling child.” Loki ducked his head sheepishly at her words, his purple-blue blush rising in his cheeks. Darcy grinned, pushing her way forwards to greet her beloved’s mother.

“Hi, I’m Darcy. It’s nice to finally meet you,” she said, giving a small but polite curtsey.

“I am most pleased to meet you as well, Darcy,” Frigga smiled back at the mortal woman. She moved forward to embrace the smaller woman. “Welcome to the family, darling girl,” she whispered, and Darcy blushed but returned the hug. It was the most motherly hug she’d had since she was a kid. When she released Darcy, Frigga looked around at the other humans who had gathered. “And where is your third?”

“Uh, here,” Clint shuffled forward awkwardly, ducking his head when Frigga’s gaze turned to him. “Clint Barton, ma’am.” He squeaked a little when Frigga embraced him too, returning it awkwardly and turning to glare at Natasha when he was released, as she had laughed when he squeaked.

“I do apologise for the unannounced visit,” Frigga addressed them all. “But when I saw the new life being woven I had to see for myself.”

“New life?” Tony parroted, and Darcy grinned.

“Yeah, you're going to be a granddad, Dad,” she announced.

“What?” Tony squeaked, and then fainted.

“Oh dear,” Frigga mused, a twinkle of mischief in her eyes, “Had he not been informed?”

“I really like you,” Darcy told her, getting a smile from the goddess.

“And I you, dear. Shall we wake your father to explain?”

“Eh, probably.”

Expecting

When Tony regained consciousness, he was on one of the couches with his daughter seated on one of the arms. She was grinning widely at him.

“Please tell me you're not pregnant,” he all but begged of her.

“Oh, I’m not the one pregnant,” Darcy said cheerfully. “But you're still going to be a granddad.” Tony whimpered.

“Explain?”

“I am able to carry children,” Loki announced from the armchair in which he was seated with Clint perched on the back. “Although I admit I had not expected to be expecting so soon.”

Tony whimpered again.

“Stop being such a baby,” Darcy told him bluntly. “I’m not pregnant, Loki is, and since I’m one of his partners you're one of the grandparents. Got it?”

“Yes ma’am,” Tony shrank back from his daughter a little. Frigga gave a tiny laugh, drawing attention back to her.

“I have been awaiting grandchildren for a long time,” she admitted. “I admit to being somewhat surprised that my first shall come from you, dear Loki, but only because you never did show interest in anyone before you came to Midgard.”

“Mother,” Loki grumbled, blushing a little, and Clint grinned as he leaned down and rested his chin on the top of the Jötunn’s head.

“I feel special,” he said, only half joking.

“You should,” Loki and Darcy informed him together, and Clint pouted at the resultant laughter. Tony was still looking to be in shock, but the rest of them seemed to have accepted and absorbed the information easily enough.

“I’m too young and pretty to be a grandfather,” Tony complained finally, and the room was again filled with laughter.

Eternal

Frigga had seen many things in her exceedingly long life – Asgard was called the Realm Eternal for a reason – but never had she seen anyone or anything as amusing as this small group of utterly unique individuals. She had been staying in the Tower for not yet a week, and each day the humans continued to surprise her.

Clint Barton, her son’s lover, had shown to be a cheerful and brave young man… until he was confronted with a spider. It had been most amusing to see the brawny young archer climb to Thor’s shoulders rapidly, screeching for someone to ‘kill it with fire’. Thor had simply stood where he was, balancing the archer with one arm, while the young man named Peter Parker had sighed, rolled his eyes, and scooped up the little arachnid in one hand, scoffing at Clint as he took the spider outside.

Young Darcy had entered the room just after Peter left, and had rolled her eyes upon seeing Clint’s perch upon Thor’s shoulders.

“You really need to get over that,” she told the archer, who returned to the floor and chastely kissed the woman’s forehead.

“When you’ve seen what I have, then you can make fun of me for being scared of evil spiders,” he informed the woman, who laughed and shook her head before moving over to what Frigga had learned was called ‘the coffee maker’.

That had been just one incident which amused her so.

The following morning, a man clad in red and black had run screeching through the kitchen, followed by a little girl with purple skin and green hair. The girl had been giggling madly, her skin rippling with colour before settling back on purple when Peter picked her up and blew a raspberry on her cheek.

“Leave your dad alone, Kriti,” Peter had scolded, “You know he isn’t at his best first thing in the morning.”

“But it’s _fun_ ,” the girl, Kriti, pouted, and Peter levelled a look at her that Frigga recognised from having used it herself many times. It was the ‘mother look’, one which could stop a troublemaking child still in their tracks. It had worked on Loki for centuries, and still did from time to time.

“No, Kriti.”

“Fine,” the little girl huffed, her purple skin changing and fading to a light brown tone while her green hair turned black. “Can I have pancakes for breakfast?”

“How about waffles?” Peter offered in return, and when the little girl cheered he had set her on a chair at the table before starting to mix some ingredients together in a large bowl.

Now, on the sixth morning of her stay, she was privy to yet another amusing scene.

Seated in the kitchen with Darcy, Clint and Loki, Frigga watched in amused interest as Darcy’s father walked into the doorframe three times before he bounced off it and into the kitchen proper. He was grumbling to himself, heading in a straight line for the coffee maker and bumping into three chairs on his way. His eyes were barely open, and he had fabric creases on his cheek.

“He gets like this once a week or so,” the healer and seeker of mysteries, Bruce, informed Frigga quietly as he entered the room, watching Tony with fond eyes. “He doesn’t sleep anywhere near as often or as much as he should.”

“Loki was much like that in his adolescent years,” Frigga responded. “In fact, I believe he would do the same now if he did not have his child and lovers to care for.”

“Mother,” Loki protested, that beautiful and sweet purple-blue blush forming on his cheeks and across his nose. Frigga just smiled at her beloved second son and brushed a kiss to his forehead.

“Forgive me, darling child, but you have always amused me with your sleeping habits, and it is always fun to see you blush.” The blush darkened, and Darcy giggled quietly before pressing a kiss to Loki’s cheek.

“Don’t worry, we think it’s adorable,” she assured him. Loki very nearly pouted at her.

“Yeah, what Darcy said,” Clint yawned, leaning his head on Loki’s shoulder and closing his eyes. “I want to go back to bed,” the archer whined.

“You have a sparring match with Nat in an hour,” Darcy reminded him. “If you go back to bed, she’ll drag you to the gym and kick your ass before you wake up properly.”

“Indeed I would,” Natasha said, moving past Frigga and the others to stop Tony from collapsing into his coffee. “Wake up, Stark, or I will replace your jeans with miniskirts.”

“Nooo,” Tony whined. “I look terrible in miniskirts. I don’t have the legs for them.”

“I don’t want to know how you know that,” Darcy announced, and Frigga laughed quietly.

She could see how being here had healed her Loki so much. It was a wonderful environment in which to live.


	19. Chapter 19

Love

Natasha could see it in so many of the other residents of Avengers’ Tower, even if she had never experienced it for herself and didn’t particularly care to.

Jane and Thor were beyond obvious, and so typically romantic-movie sappy that it was actually somewhat sickening to see them interacting.

Sam and Pietro were actually rather cute, the two of them preferring to limit their displays of affection to small touches and fond looks. They loved each other no less than Jane and Thor, but were not anywhere near as obvious about their love as the god and scientist were.

Steve and Bucky were Steve and Bucky. Unless the person observing them was aware of their relationship, it would be impossible to see how they showed their affection in front of others. The ribbing and jostling and fond, gentle looks were the most anyone would see, unless one of the two was feeling particularly possessive and decided to let it be known that they were together.

Loki, Darcy and Clint were… amusing. Especially considering that Loki now looked as if he had swallowed a watermelon and both Darcy and Clint had taken to fussing over the Jötunn like nothing else. Before Loki had announced his pregnancy, it had been interesting and amusing to watch the trio around each other. Darcy was a force of nature, often dragging Clint and Loki along in her wake, but the way in which she doted upon her two men made it clear that she loved them both. She wasn’t one for touches or kisses, but when she saw Clint and Loki do either she would get a fond, happy smile on her face. Natasha was quite sure that Darcy was one of a kind, just like her father.

Wade and Peter were just as amusing as the Tower’s trio, if in a different manner. Wade would push and push at Peter until the younger man snapped and hit or otherwise assaulted him, resulting in a cackling Wade as he wrapped the lithe superhero up in his arms and nuzzled at him affectionately. Natasha was not entirely sure how the two of them worked, or managed to _make_ their relationship work, but they were both happy and so she was content to speculate in her own time and leave them to their strange rituals.

She was not quite sure what the situation with Bruce and Tony was, but she was certain that even if the two were not sleeping together, they were at least engaged in some sort of platonic gay romance – if that even made any sort of sense. They were always close, Bruce reining Tony in with ease on some occasions or encouraging him on others, but either way it was clear that the doctor had a big effect on his fellow genius.

Pepper and Rhodey she rarely managed to see interact, but when they did she could see the love they had for each other through the subtle ways they interacted which few others seemed to notice.

Wanda’s supposed son Billy and his partner Teddy were typical teenagers in love. They were sweet, fairly chaste, and rather awkward, but Natasha knew that their love was as deep as any of the other couples (or triad) in the Tower.

She could see love all around her, but she still did not quite understand it. But that was fine – it didn’t need to be understood.

Mood

When Steve and Bucky entered the entertainment room on the common floor after their morning run, they were surprised to see Darcy and Clint sound asleep together on one of the beanbags, with Loki nowhere in sight. Slightly worried, Steve leaned over and shook Darcy’s shoulder gently.

She woke with a snort, looking around blearily and blinking up at Steve and Bucky.

“Oh, hey guys,” she greeted, yawning and cuddling back into Clint. “What’s up?”

“Why are you two sleeping here?”

“Loki kicked us out,” Darcy shrugged. “He mightn’t have had the morning sickness, but he sure as hell got the mood swings. Since his mood swings tend to result in our bedroom freezing, Clint and I figured it was better to just sleep out here.”

“Oh.” There wasn’t much more that Steve could say to that.

“Are you sure he wanted you to leave?” Bucky asked with a faint frown. “Mood swings don’t usually last very long.”

“He specifically told us not to come back to our bedroom until tonight,” Clint grumbled, turning his face into Darcy’s hair and huffing. “Since we got frozen out of the lounge room too, we came up here.”

“Fair enough,” Bucky shrugged at Steve when the blonde turned a completely bewildered look his way. “I was gonna make some breakfast. You two want anything?”

“Nah, we’re gonna sleep a bit more,” Darcy yawned again, tucking her face out of direct sunlight and shutting her eyes. “See you later.”


	20. Chapter 20

Jade

It was such a pretty colour. Different than Loki’s eyes when he was in his Aesir/human guise, but just as brilliant. Paler, definitely, but still so pretty.

“Darcy?”

“Oh, hi Peter. What’s up?”

“You’ve been staring at that statue for the past twenty minutes,” Peter shifted uneasily on the spot, glancing at the jade dragon statue and then back at Darcy. Wade and Kriti were nowhere in sight, and Peter looked anxious. “You weren’t moving at all, not even blinking. It was getting a little creepy.”

Oh.

Now that she was more aware of her surroundings, she felt goosebumps go up her spine. It was like a spell had been broken or something…

And she felt really, really tired all of a sudden. Not so much so that she had to sleep right that second, but tireder than she’d been since Loki’s heat.

“There’s something off about that statue,” she whispered to Peter, rubbing her arms briskly to shake off the chill that seemed to have settled into her bones. “I really don’t like it, Peter.”

“Should we call one of the others, maybe?”

“No… not right now. Wait until we get home, then we’ll tell them about it. We don’t want to risk alarming anyone, or alerting anyone that we’ve noticed something off with the statue.”

“Good point. I’ll just grab Wade and Kriti, and then we’ll leave.”

“I’ll come with you,” Darcy decided, more than willing to leave the jade dragon statue behind. Peter didn’t try to dissuade her, just looping one of his arms through hers and leading her off to where he’d left Wade and Kriti arguing over the right way to go through a particular exhibit.

Hunger

There was a cramped feeling in the region of the creature’s abdomen. A cramped, gnawing feeling which could not be ignored. The feeling interrupted the creature’s slumber, causing it to shift and groan and growl as it began to awake from its centuries-long sleep. It needed to eat, needed to devour and consume anything it could until that discomforting gnawing in its belly faded.

It would wake, and it would feed, and there was nothing it knew of that could stop it. Those pitiful and primitive humans were still fighting with sticks and metal shards last it was awake, as they had done for millennia. Not much would have changed – they would still be unable to harm it. It would be free, it would feast, and it would retake its place as an image of fear and despair.

It hungered.

In the museum, the jade statue of a seven-headed dragon began to glow.

Dragon

_“Please, please tell me that isn’t what I think it is,”_ Clint all but begged over the Avengers’ communications line.

_“Sorry, Birdbrain, but that definitely looks like a dragon to me.”_

_“Fuck.”_

“Keep the chatter off the comms,” Steve snapped, ducking one of seven – count ‘em, _seven_ – heads that the large, deadly, supposedly mythical creature in front of him was flailing about.

 _“I would say it was more a hydra,”_ Natasha mused.

 _“Shall we cut off a head and see if it grows more to check that little idea of yours?”_ Tony bitched.

“Iron Man, shut it,” Steve ordered. “Unless you have viable ideas, I would suggest _staying silent_.”

 _“Spoilsport,”_ Tony muttered, but fell silent.

“PUNY HUMAN,” the dragon – possible hydra – roared from its middle head, the other six saying the same thing but each in a different language. Its rage was directed at Steve. “I SHALL EAT YOU FIRST, AND THEN SATE MY HUNGER ON YOUR FELLOWS.”

“Not likely,” Iron Man retorted from where he had just appeared behind one of the dragon’s heads, and Steve ducked as a repulsor blast severed one of the heads cleanly from the rest of the body, cauterising the stump in the same move.

The dragon-hydra-thing roared in pain, one of its remaining heads whipping about and attempting to bite down on Tony, who hurriedly dodged and retreated to a safe distance.

“HOW DARE YOU? I SHALL DESTROY ALL OF YOU! YOUR PUNY STICKS AND FIRE ARE NO MATCH FOR ME!”

The Avengers ignored it.

 _“So, either not an actual hydra, or cauterising the stumps stops the heads growing back,”_ Tony mused.

 _“It thought hydras had nine heads, anyways?”_ Clint added.

 _“According to myth they do, and I’m guessing that that’s our best source of info,”_ Tony responded. _“So that makes Ugly here a multi-headed dragon.”_ He paused. _“I do not get paid enough for this shit.”_

 _“You don’t get paid at all,”_ Natasha returned dryly.

 _“Well, in that case, you’re on your own on this one, guys,”_ he joked.

“Chatter, nix it,” Steve snapped.

 _“Spoilsport,”_ Tony accused again, but the dirty look Steve sent his way must have been seen, for the billionaire didn’t add anything else.

 _“So shall we take off this thing’s heads before it does any more damage, or sent Hulk and Thor in to bash it around a bit first?”_ Clint asked with only a little sarcasm.

“Hawkeye, see how many heads you can take out. Widow and I will distract it best we can. Iron Man, same thing as Hawkeye. If Thor can control it, see if he can bring down some lightning to fry this thing,” Steve barked out the orders quickly. “Let’s try and keep the damage to the city a minimum, people.”

 _“Got it, Cap,”_ the majority of his teammates chorused, and went straight to it.

The multi-headed dragon had no idea what hit it.

Decoy

“So that creepy jade statue that I couldn’t help staring at the other day? Turns out it was some hibernating multi-headed dragon that was set on devouring as many humans as it could eat,” Darcy commented casually to Peter. The young man choked on his cereal.

“What?”

“I said, the creepy jade statue was a hibernating multi-headed dragon that wanted to eat people,” Darcy repeated.

“No, no, I heard you, but… what the fuck?”

“I know right?” Darcy looked delighted. “Apparently it wasn’t expecting the changes and advances in technology since it was last awake. So when Dad blasted one of its heads off, it just kept trying to eat him instead of watching out for more blasts or trying to swat away Clint’s exploding arrows.”

“Was it stupid or just tired?”

“I’m going with stupid,” Darcy admitted. “It didn’t even realise Dad was acting as a decoy so the others could take pot shots at it.”

“Huh.”

“Yep. It was surprisingly easy to defeat, considering it was a seven-headed wingless dragon.”

“No kidding.”

Devil

Wanda refused to give in. She refused to bow her head and be or act ashamed. She was proud of who she was, of what she could do, and there was no way she would allow anyone to make her feel otherwise. She didn’t care who hated her for being a mutant, for having powers that they didn’t or that they feared. She would care if Teddy or her sons or her brother were hurt by it, but since they brushed it off as easily as she did (although she could see that Teddy sometimes flinched when a taunt hit its mark) she let it slide and refused to let it affect her.

“Devil spawn!” a woman hissed at her, and she turned a cold look the middle-aged woman’s way. The ignorant human flinched back, one of her hands coming up to clutch at the crucifix around her neck. Wanda raised an eyebrow at her, and continued on her way.

She stopped when something hit her back, however, and turned back to find the culprit. The woman who was still clutching her necklace glared at her, her other hand still falling to her side from where she had thrown what Wanda now saw to be a wooden cross. Wanda raised a brow again, but the woman didn’t move or let up her glare. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Wanda leaned down and picked up the crucifix, holding it out to the woman.

“If you are going to taunt me, please choose something that is actually hurtful or offensive,” she said lightly. “Otherwise you are just wasting both our time.” The woman who had thrown the cross didn’t take it, but the teenaged boy beside her – who looked mortified, so Wanda assumed the woman was his mother – reached out and took it from Wanda’s outstretched hand.

“Sorry about my mom,” the teenager rubbed the back of his neck. “I think you guys are awesome. Even if there are a lot of people who don’t appreciate it,” here he glared briefly at his mother, “there are still a lot of people that do. So thank you.”

“Conrad!” the woman hissed, but the boy ignored her.

Wanda was both surprised and touched. She managed a faint, but real smile at the boy.

“Thank you,” she said quietly, and the boy – Conrad – grinned brightly at her.

“No problem.”

Wanda couldn’t wipe away her smile as she continued on her way.

Sometimes, humanity let her down. But sometimes, on rare occasions, someone would rekindle her faith in them.

People like Conrad were why she fought to protect them all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been a bit busy with editing work, so I completely forgot to update yesterday!


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Attempted assault in this chapter. The asshole gets his ass handed to him, but the threat is there.

Roses

There was a delivery.

Roses, a rich red in colour and in full bloom.

The thing was, no one had ordered roses, not even as a gift to partners.

The card with the flowers was worrying. Not majorly so at first, but then when Loki denied ordering them, they became so.

_My beloved Darcy,_

_You are a beautiful creature who should not be constrained to this mortal existence._

It was not signed.

Loki was pacing in anger, jaw locked and fists clenched, while Darcy eyed the roses like they were rigged to explode and curled in close to Clint’s protective, strong frame.

“They were ordered online and delivered by the company,” Tony announced while his chosen family waited anxiously for the results of the search the billionaire had JARVIS begin as soon as they realised that Loki was not the sender. “JARVIS can trace the transactions. Whoever this is, we’ll find out, and then we’ll find out their motives.” His jaw clenched briefly as he looked at his daughter’s trembling, terrified form. “We’ll find them, Darcy.”

“I know,” she whispered, looking up from Clint’s shoulder finally. “I trust you.” Loki snarled.

“I will rend their flesh from their bones,” he growled, red eyes bright with his rage. Darcy and Clint separated long enough to grab the Jötunn and drag him down to cuddle with them. Loki remained stiff with rage for a few heartbeats, but then relaxed and held Darcy close while Clint wrapped his arms around them both protectively.

“No, no rending, no flaying, none of that,” Tony shook his head. “We gotta handle this the right way, or it’ll come back to haunt us later. Trust me on that, if nothing else.”

“We all trust you, Tony,” Steve interrupted, reaching out and guiding Tony to sit beside Bruce. The scientist slung an arm over the billionaire’s shoulders, making him relax just a little.

“Well, good,” Tony huffed. Darcy managed a slightly hysterical giggle.

“Find them soon, or I will do so myself,” Loki squeezed out through clenched teeth. Darcy and Clint set to stroking his arms and hair to soothe him just a little.

“We know,” Clint murmured, one hand drifting to cover Loki’s distended belly, “But we would prefer it if you can avoid as much stress as possible.” Loki huffed, but settled. He would listen for the moment.

Helpless

She’d not felt this way for years. Not since she first hit puberty and all of a sudden these dirty old men were _leering_ at her when she was barely thirteen and so tiny still.

This feeling was why she had learned to snark at anyone and everyone, to chatter to drive people away; why she had learned to punch hard and fast and how to run in heels and why she had (illegally) purchased a Taser with her mom’s credit card when she was fifteen.

She didn’t want to feel helpless again. Not after she had realised just what all those creepy men had wanted of her.

And yet here she was. Alone, cold, unarmed and unaware of where she was or how she had gotten there.

Helpless.

She had been collecting the mail from the ground floor of Avengers’ Tower, just for something to do since everyone was adamant she stay indoors so that the person who had sent her those roses couldn’t get to her, and then next thing she knew she was in this cold, bare room with no way to contact her family and no way to defend herself if anyone came to hurt her. When she got home, she was going to get Nat to train her in more advanced hand-to-hand than she’d been learning so far.

There was sound from the other side of the door to her prison. A key in a lock, a chain being moved, a deadbolt being slid back. She got to her feet, schooling her scared expression into a cold, blank mask. It was something she had copied from Natasha. She held herself proudly, refusing to let whoever this bastard was see how scared she was or how helpless she felt.

The door opened, and the person on the other side left her gaping stupidly at them.

_“Chris?”_

“Hello, my beloved Darcy.”

Her ex-boyfriend’s eyes shone with madness.

Night

Darcy had been missing for twelve hours when JARVIS finally got a hit on the lunatic who had taken her.

_“Sir.”_

“What have you got for us, J?”

_“I have found where Christopher Skinner is keeping Darcy.”_

“Where?!” The word was called by nearly everyone, but the loudest and angriest by far was Loki.

_“The address is in Queens…”_

Loki’s smile as he was given the full address would have sent shivers down the spine of those who did not know him.

Before this night was over, the pitiful excuse for a man who had taken his Darcy would beg for mercy.

A mercy that Loki would not grant him.

Grabbing Clint around the waist, Loki teleported them both to the address they had been given.

Teeth

Darcy kicked out at Chris, knocking him back and thanking Natasha and Clint silently for the (so far, very basic) hand-to-hand combat lessons they had been giving her. Chris fell hard to the floor, and Darcy moved cautiously towards the door, keeping her eyes on her crazy ex the entire time. He coughed weakly, sounding winded, but considering that the douchebag had kidnapped her – successfully, too – from the Tower and from right under the Avengers’ noses, she didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him. Which, to be honest, was further than she would’ve been able to throw him while they were dating.

“Who has turned you against me, my love?” Chris asked in a pitiful tone as he stumbled to his feet.

“No one, you managed that _all_ on your own,” Darcy snarled. “You have no fucking idea what you’ve done, kidnapping me from my home.”

“This is your home!” Chris protested.

“No, it isn’t!” Darcy was still inching steadily towards the door, eyes locked on Chris. The man was insane, there was no doubting that. She’d known he was a bit off when they’d dated, but when he’d tried to get her into bed with him for something other than sleeping or cuddling, she’d broken it off and made a point to never speak to him again.

“My love, my Darcy,” Chris was muttering as he stepped towards her, “you cannot leave me again, no, not again. My beautiful Venus, my Aphrodite, I will free you from your mortal shell so you may love me as you are meant to.”

“You're batshit crazy,” Darcy snapped at him, and giving up the safety of keeping him in her sights, she bolted for the open door.

Much to her surprise, she managed to get through it without him catching her, and she ran towards where she remembered the front door to his flat being.

She could hear him behind her, could hear him slowly, steadily catching up to her as she dodged furniture and bags and shoes and books. The flat was as ridiculously big as she remembered, and she had been kept in the spare room furthest point from the front door.

Bastard.

She screamed as he tackled her, knocking them both to the floor as she struggled to turn so she could escape and beat the crap out of him.

Okay, maybe beating the crap out of him was a bit ambitious. Although he was crazy, he was also physically strong – not as strong as Clint or Loki, but stronger than Darcy.

Still, she would do her damned best to get away from the crazy asshole. What Clint and Nat had taught her so far should definitely be enough to get away from Chris and get help.

She scratched at his face when she managed to turn, drawing her legs up to kick him in the gut and push him up and off her. She managed to push him back far enough that he lost all his grip on her, but before she could get off the floor he was on her again, this time pinning her legs beneath him and grabbing her arms in one of his to hold them over her head. He was grinning madly, eyes wild and smile just a bit too wide, and Darcy increased her struggles as he reached for her shirt buttons.

Darcy freaked the fuck out.

She threw herself forward with all the upper body strength she could muster, head-butting Chris’ nose and making him lean back with a curse. His grip on her arms loosened enough for her to free them, and she punched his nose hard enough for him to reel back further – far enough for her to squirm out from underneath him and get to her feet.

“You little _bitch_ ,” he snarled, the madness now fuelled by rage, and Darcy settled into a defensive stance. If she was going down, she was going down _fighting_.

Chris lunged for her, and she utilised her fairly new training to dodge, spin, and shove the insane bastard hard into one of the walls head first. He staggered, blood trickling down his forehead from a cut near his hairline, and Darcy backed towards the apartment’s front door as he focused his eyes on her once more.

He lunged again, and this time Darcy didn’t have enough room to dodge. She fell, rolling with the movement so as not to crack her head on the floor, and was caught mid-roll by Chris’ strong arm around her middle. The other reached for her hair, and she knew he was going to use it to attempt to control her movements.

Fuck that for a joke.

She lunged forwards herself, biting down on his hand with sharp white teeth and hanging on, even when he tried to shove her away with the arm that had been around her waist.

She tasted blood, and spat out his hand and blood to continue her dash for the door. She was almost there when his uninjured hand closed around her ankle and brought her crashing down once more.

Then, just as she lashed out with her other foot and got Chris in the nose for the third time, the door to the apartment crashed open – split in two by the force of Loki’s rage.

Left

The twitching, whimpering, bloody, bruised body of Christopher Skinner was loaded into an ambulance under the watchful eyes of two burly policemen. In a second ambulance, Darcy Lewis was getting checked over by paramedics under the sharp gaze of Clint Barton. Loki was nowhere to be seen, having disappeared back to the Tower under Darcy’s orders so that no one would see his blue-skinned, red-eyed, gravid state. Loki’s magic was as worked up as he was, making it impossible for him to don his usual illusion of pale-skinned, green-eyed, slim Aesir/human Loki.

“You have a slight concussion, a few bruises, but no sprains or fractures. You were very lucky,” the female paramedic told Darcy with a reassuring smile.

“You should see what’s left of the other guy,” Darcy joked, making the paramedic laugh in surprise.

“I did. How much of that was you, and how much of that was your rescuer?” the woman asked curiously. Clint snorted.

“The bloody face, the bitten hand, and the bruised abdomen were all Darcy. The fractured arms and ribs were me,” he admitted cheerfully.

“Nice work,” the paramedic kept her voice low, glancing briefly at the officers waiting to speak to Darcy and Clint before she continued. “From what you’ve told me, the bastard deserved it.”

“He did,” the duo chorused. Then Darcy pulled a face.

“Can I rinse my mouth out? I think I can still taste his hand, and that shit’s nasty.” The paramedic snorted, and filled a Styrofoam cup with water to give Darcy. “Thanks.”


	22. Chapter 22

Accident

When asked, they would brush it off as a minor upset.

When prodded, they would say it was an accident they didn’t mind at all.

When pushed, they would admit that it wasn’t planned and they would probably have waited if given the opportunity.

But while they were pacing the corridor outside the room in which Loki was giving birth, Darcy and Clint both could admit that they didn’t think they were ready to be parents, and that they would probably have a panic attack the first time the baby needed something that they didn’t know how to give or do.

All Darcy could say was thank fuck Frigga and Loki both knew how to deal with children, and thank fuck Frigga was willing to impart some of her knowledge to Darcy.

Clint was probably even more messed up about the entire thing than Darcy and Loki were combined. He was close to a panic attack just waiting for the birth, so Darcy didn’t know how he would manage when there was an actual real live baby to deal with.

She got the feeling that Clint would be wrapped around his son or daughter’s teeny tiny fingers from the moment he saw them. She also got the feeling that he would be a better parent than any of them would have thought, including Clint himself.

Call it a woman’s intuition, call it a hunch, call it wishful thinking – Darcy was _certain_ that Clint would be an absolutely wonderful father for his child.

Rain

When the child of Clint and Loki was finally pushed out into the world, there was a storm raging over New York. It was only partially caused by Thor’s anxiety, but mostly caused by the changing of the seasons.

Frigga opened the door to the birthing room and smiled at the anxious faces of Darcy and Clint.

“Come in,” the Queen of Asgard said softly. “Come and meet your daughter.”

Darcy and Clint rushed into the room as soon as Frigga stepped aside, and both of them stopped short at the sight of the tiny bundle being cradled in Loki’s blue arms. The expression on the Jötunn’s face was impossibly tender as he watched his daughter. He lifted his red gaze to his partners and beckoned them closer with a smile.

“She’s so tiny,” Darcy whispered, settling onto the bed beside Loki and reaching out with one finger to gently touch the baby’s pink face.

“Newborns usually are,” Loki said dryly, but he was smiling. Clint edged closer, wary but curious, and peeked into the blanket cocoon to see his daughter. “Sit down, you great lump,” Loki huffed, shifting the infant in his arms to use one to pull Clint down onto his bed opposite Darcy. Clint blushed a little at the fond look Darcy sent his way.

“Have you considered a name?” Darcy asked, smiling at the awed expression on Clint’s face as he watched his newborn daughter sleep.

“I have a few in mind,” Loki admitted, glancing between Darcy and Clint – the latter of whom was still completely focused on the yet-unnamed infant girl’s face. “I would like both your opinions.”

“Fire away,” Darcy urged. She wanted to hear what Loki had in mind for the absolutely perfect little girl in his arms.

“I am fond of the name Dagny,” Loki murmured. “It means new day. I also like Eydís, which comes from the word for good fortune and the word for goddess.”

“There are others you are considering, though, aren’t there?” Darcy prompted. Loki glanced at her, and then back down at his daughter with a faint purple blush forming on his cheeks.

“Yes. Hela, derived from Helga, means ‘blessed’. Ylva, meaning she-wolf – a strong name for a girl who will need to be strong. Ragna was one of my original choices, but JARVIS pointed out to me that such a name could result in her being called ‘rags’ by her peers when she begins to attend school.”

“Kids are cruel,” Darcy admitted, “Especially to each other. So you like Ylva, Hela, Eydís and Dagny?”

“Yes. There were a few others, but those four are the ones I favour.”

“I like Dagny,” Clint spoke up, glancing up at his two partners. “It’s kind of a tribute to you, Darcy.”

“I do like it, but can you imagine what’s going to happen when she gets older? Dagny, daughter of Darcy?”

“True, unfortunately,” Loki sighed.

“What about having Dagny as her middle name?” Darcy suggested. The two men looked up at her. “She’s going to have a middle name, right?”

“That is true,” Loki said slowly.

“So the options are Ylva Dagny, Hela Dagny, or Eydís Dagny,” Darcy rattled off. Clint and Loki considered the three choices Darcy had come up with.

“I like Hela,” the archer admitted.

“Hela Dagny Barton,” Loki murmured, either not seeing or choosing to ignore the startled and then touched look on Clint’s face.

“I like it,” Darcy smiled, stroking the little girl’s cheek again.

“Me too,” Clint beamed at the two other adults in the room.

“As do I,” Loki stroked his daughter’s face with one cold finger, making the infant squirm a little where she was being held. “Hela Dagny Barton. Welcome,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to his now-named daughter’s forehead. “Your arrival has been greatly anticipated.”


	23. Chapter 23

Itch

He first felt it as an itch under his skin. It was brief, flaring into existence one moment and then fading away to nothing the next.

It didn’t stay that way for long.

Soon it was constant, resting just under the surface of his skin and spreading to cover his entire body. He did his best to ignore it, going about his daily business as if there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

And then it started to have an effect on his powers.

He couldn’t move any faster than normal human pace without the itch becoming a burn – a burn which would have him stumbling to a halt and almost screaming in agony. It felt like he was on fire, and it only subsided back to a simple itch when he resumed a normal human pace. It was horrible.

And terrifying.

One day it just got too much. When he couldn’t accelerate, he just stopped still and crumpled into a ball, burying his face in his knees as he wrapped his arms around his legs. His shoulders shook with his sobs, unable to keep the pain and frustration in any longer. He just wanted it to _stop!_

“Pietro?” Sam knelt beside him and placed a hand on his back. The mutant’s sobs hitched, the itching beneath his skin fading away at the touch of his partner. “Love, what’s wrong?”

“I itch all over,” Pietro managed, voice muffled by his knees. “When I speed up it burns. I feel like I’m on fire.”

“Why didn’t you tell someone?”

“I thought it would stop. Or that I was imagining it.”

“Pietro…” Sam sighed. “Come on, let’s go see Bruce.” Pietro stumbled to his feet, relief filling him at the support his partner offered without hesitation.

He was so lucky to have Sam. So, so lucky.

Dance

Watching Bucky and Natasha spar was a favoured pastime of quite a few of the Tower’s residents. They moved so fluidly when they sparred together, even more fluidly than Steve and Bucky did when they sparred, and it was a sight to behold.

It wasn’t a fight, a spar – it was a dance. A deadly, beautiful dance to which only Natasha and Bucky knew all the steps.

And when they sparred, it wasn’t Natasha and Bucky anymore. It was a Black Widow and the Winter Soldier who sparred. It was Nat’s Yasha and the Asset’s Natashenka who sparred. Not Natasha and Bucky.

But nevertheless, it was beautiful.

Deadly, yes, but beautiful.

The dance of life and death made physical by a lithe redhead who could kill a man with her thighs and solid metal-armed brunet who had lived and died so many times it was impossible to keep track.

Hurt

Bruce took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes, shoulders heaving in a sigh. He’d gone over the data again and again, checked the samples and taken more, and still there was no explanation for the pain Pietro was feeling when he tried to use his powers. There was no explanation for the itch Pietro felt under his skin at all times.

…no scientific explanation anyway.

Bruce put his glasses back on and turned to look at Sam and Pietro – the silver-haired man was slumped over despondently, whilst Sam hovered worriedly.

“I can find no scientific explanation. You might ask Loki and Wanda to check for spells or curses,” he added. “Can you remember if there’s been a chance for someone to curse you or otherwise place a spell on you?”

“Not off the top of my head, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” Pietro shrugged. He stood, leaning into Sam when the older man placed a hand on his back lightly. “I’ll go talk to Loki and Wanda. Thanks, Bruce,” he added, and Sam echoed his thanks in a murmur before following his boyfriend out of Bruce’s lab.

Bruce was just sorry he couldn’t do anything else to help with what was hurting Pietro. The man didn’t deserve it in the slightest.

Deal

“So here’s what’s going to happen,” Deadpool drawled, his narrowed eyes obvious even with his mask on. His grip on his two katana shifted slightly, drawing the attention of the would-be kidnappers to the shining silver metal. The walls of the two buildings forming the alley seemed to darken. “You're going to let the girl go without hurting her in the slightest, and then you're going to run so I can chase you down before I kill you. And I’ll even let you live if you manage to outrun me for half an hour. I’m sure guys like you have heard of me, right? So you know that this is a good deal.”

Some of the would-be kidnappers were sweating with fear. In the arms of the bravest – or the stupidest, Deadpool hadn’t decided yet – Kriti was watching with wide brown eyes. Neither she nor the kidnappers were aware of Spiderman waiting above for the right moment to snatch Kriti away to safety.

“I’ll give you until the count of three,” Deadpool offered in a chipper tone, a polar opposite from the serious and deadly voice he’d been using moments before. “Does that sound fair? I think it sounds fair.”

One of the less stupid idiots dropped his knife and ran, disappearing so fast he almost left a dust trail behind him.

“One.”

A second idiot ran for his life.

“Two.”

The remaining four idiots – not including the one holding little Kriti – glanced at each other with wide, fearful eyes and started to back away. Deadpool’s eyes narrowed again, focusing on Kriti’s main captor.

“Three.”

The four idiots fled, leaving their dumbass boss to Deadpool’s hands.

As soon as the word ‘three’ left Deadpool’s mouth, Spiderman swung down out of nowhere, grabbed Kriti tight, and in the same smooth movement continued to swing up out of the alley. Unseen by the idiot now pleading for his life while Deadpool happily stabbed him, Spiderman came to a gentle landing on one of the outside stairwells of the larger building. He carefully placed Kriti down on her feet, and tugged his mask off to check her over.

“Are you okay?” Peter asked worriedly, checking for any possible cuts or bruises to his daughter while Wade cheerfully slaughtered her would-be kidnappers. Kriti wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight hug.

“I’m okay,” she whispered. “Thanks for saving me, Papa.” Peter hugged her back tightly.

“I’ll always save you, baby girl.”

“I know.” Peter gave a little laugh at her matter-of-fact tone, pulling back and ruffling her loose black hair.

“You're adorable. Come on, let’s go home while your Daddy finishes _talking_ to the bad men.”

Mail

“This is getting out of hand,” Steve murmured to Tony as the two of them destroyed the latest hate mail to arrive addressed to either Quicksilver or Scarlet Witch. There was some for Sam too, now that it had come out that he and Pietro were a couple, and there was always some for Loki. Why couldn’t people understand that the Jötunn was one of the good guys now?

“I know,” Tony frowned. “I think it’d be best if they got out of the Tower and the city for a while. Keep low and stay out of sight, you know?”

“I know,” Steve assured him. “Where should they go, do you think?”

“I know Xavier would love to have them, and it’d do ‘em good to be around kids for a bit. Other than Wanda’s kids, I mean,” Tony added, scratching the back of his head as he recalled the two teenagers Wanda claimed as her sons.

“Just the two of them?”

“Considering half the hate mail is homophobic bullshit? I reckon at least Sam should go too,” Tony shrugged. “Probably Peter with Kriti too, since a lot of the mail is anti-mutant shit. I’m pretty sure the kids at the Mansion would get a kick out of meeting Loki and Clint, and where they go Darcy goes most of the time.”

“A group visit, then,” Steve chuckled. “Do you want to tell them they’re going, or suggest it?”

“Suggest it, of course. Most of them are far too like me to take orders well.”

“I swear Loki, Pietro, and Peter are as much yours as Darcy is sometimes,” Steve laughed, and Tony pulled a face.

“I’m still trying to get used to having one kid, I don’t need to think about having three more!”

“Don’t forget your granddaughter,” Steve teased. Tony paled.

“Holy shit I’m getting old.” Steve clapped him on the shoulder as he moved past the billionaire.

It was always fun to remind the forty-something man that he had a grandchild already, even if little Hela wasn’t biologically Darcy’s.


	24. Chapter 24

-0-

Favour

“Hey Charles, I need to ask a favour,” Tony said as soon as Professor Charles Xavier answered his video call. The powerful telepath chuckled fondly.

“You know you may always ask, my friend. What can I do for you?”

“A few of my housemates, family really, have been getting some pretty bad hate mail. If possible, could a few come and stay at the Mansion for a while?”

“How many and when will they arrive?” Charles asked instantly.

“Two kids, one of them under six months, and seven adults,” Tony rattled off in return. “And as soon as I ask and they agree, so probably at some point today.”

“And what are their names?” Charles prompted.

“Peter Parker and his daughter Kriti, my daughter Darcy and her partners Loki and Clint Barton, their daughter Hela, Sam Wilson, and Pietro and Wanda Maximoff,” Tony replied, relieved when Charles just nodded. He’d been slightly afraid that the Maximoffs would be unwelcome – stupid thought, really, considering that Charles was still trying to get Magneto back on the good side, and had been the one to send the twins to the Tower for protection in the first place. “Thanks for this, Charles,” he added. The man just smiled at him.

“There is no need to thank me, my friend. I shall make sure the students – and the teachers – are aware that we are having guests.”

“Awesome, thanks a bunch, talk to you later!” Tony ended the call as soon as Charles had said his own goodbye, and went to ask the seven adults if they’d be willing to take a break at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters until the hate mail died down a little.

Angel

When the Quinjet landed on the wide driveway of Xavier’s school, they were greeted by a surly man with a cigar hanging out his mouth and his thick arms folded over his broad chest. Logan hadn’t changed in the slightest since Wanda had last seen him.

“Hi, Wolverine,” she greeted with a small smile. “How have you been?”

“Not bad,” he grunted. “So who else is with ya, Scarlet?”

“My brother, of course,” Wanda smiled, undeterred by Wolverine’s attitude. “His partner, Sam, and a few other friends of ours.”

“Hn.” Another grunt. Logan eyed the group as they emerged from the Quinjet, which lifted off as soon as the ramp shut behind them. Natasha waved before she turned the craft and set off to return to the tower, a group of heroes and not-quite-civilians left to Logan’s grumpy but actually quite genuine welcome. “C’mon then, Chuck wants ta see ya.”

“Of course,” Wanda inclined her head slightly, and followed Logan up the drive with her friends and family close behind.

Warren Worthington met them at the door, and Kriti spoke up for the first time since they’d left the Tower.

“Wow,” she said softly, eyes on his gorgeous white wings. “Your wings are really pretty.”

“Thank you,” Warren managed a smile for the wide-eyed child. “I am Warren, or Angel. What is your name?”

“I’m Kriti,” the little girl replied shyly, clinging a little tighter to Peter’s hand and pressing close to his leg and side.

“It’s nice to meet you, Kriti,” Warren smiled at her. Kriti blushed faintly and hid her face in her Papa’s side, making him grin and roll his eyes a little at Warren’s amusement. Darcy chose that moment to speak up.

“So, not that standing outside on the massive doorstep isn’t awesome and all, but is it alright for us to come in?” She adjusted the large bag she was carrying over one shoulder. “This thing isn’t exactly light.”

“Oh, sorry, of course,” Warren seemed flustered, but moved out of the way so the group could enter the Mansion properly. “I’m sorry…”

“It’s fine, don’t stress,” Darcy smiled at him. “Darcy Lewis, just call me Darcy” she held her hand out, and the blonde man shook it.

“Warren Worthington. Just call me Warren or Angel, I answer to both.”

“Cool. These are my partners, Clint Barton and Loki, and our daughter Hela,” she gestured to each of her family as she spoke. Warren inclined his head politely in a greeting. Logan had long since disappeared.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He was then engulfed in a strong hug from Wanda, and squeaked slightly before hugging her back. “Nice to see you again, Wanda.”

“Likewise, Angel. You remember Pietro, obviously,” Warren nodded, “And this is his partner, Sam Wilson.”

“Hi,” Sam gave a slightly awkward wave, his other arm slung around Pietro. While Wanda and Loki had managed to find and remove the strange curse which was causing him harm, the silver-haired man still was slightly lethargic and ached from time to time. Today was one of the worse days.

“And this is Peter Parker, whose daughter you already met,” Wanda continued the introduction, and Peter grinned at Warren.

“Nice to meet you,” Peter held out a hand to Warren, which the winged mutant shook politely.

“Likewise,” Warren returned Peter’s smile. “I’m to take you up to Professor Xavier’s office. Please follow me.”


	25. Chapter 25

Understand

“I don’t get why we gotta make the normies feel welcome in _our_ safe space,” Kitty mumbled, glaring down at her toast.

“Because they are _guests_ , Kitty,” Rogue sighed. “C’mon, you know that.” Kitty just scowled into her toast and didn’t respond. Rogue met Bobby’s eyes and rolled hers, making her best friend cough to hide his laugh. Beside Bobby, Pyro scowled faintly in Rogue’s direction and leant a bit firmer against his boyfriend, still jealous of the way the two interacted despite the fact Rogue couldn’t actually make a move on Bobby even if she had wanted to.

“Heads up,” Piotr muttered, jerking his head subtly towards the entrance to the dining hall. A short and curvy brunette woman walked in, her hair a wild mess as she blinked around blearily through her glasses and ambled towards the coffee pot. She was followed by a tall and slender black-haired man with pale skin and a bundle in his arms, and a half-asleep blonde man with really well-muscled arms and a compact frame. The blonde leaned against the black-haired man while the brunette woman poured two cups of coffee, and then the duo practically inhaled the steaming liquid and seemed to perk up immediately. The trio looked around, and the black-haired man’s bright green eyes locked on the small group who were the only people currently in the room.

Much to Pyro and Kitty’s badly-hidden irritation, the three strangers approached their table. Pyro flicked open his lighter, and started playing with the flame in an attempt to warn the strangers off.

“Hey, mind if we sit here until our friends get up?” the brunette woman asked cheerily.

“Uh, sure,” Rogue responded, unsure how to take the fact that the woman and her companions either were ignoring Pyro’s display or didn’t consider it a deterrent. “Go ahead.”

“Thanks,” the woman smiled at her. “I’m Darcy, and these two are Clint and Loki. The little bundle is our daughter, Hela.”

“I’m Rogue.” Anna-Marie’s momma hadn’t raised her to be impolite, so she was going to return the introductions as she had been taught her whole life. “This is Kitty, Piotr, Bobby and Pyro.”

“Nice to meet you,” Darcy smiled. She sounded like she genuinely meant it. “So tell me, is Logan always pissy, or is it just around people he’s only met once or twice?”

Bobby snorted, looking surprised after he did so, and that made Darcy laugh. Rogue’s lips twitched.

“He’s always like that. Don’t take it personally.”

“Oh, I didn’t, I was just wondering if it was a legit personality trait or if he was just being a dick.” This time only Pyro managed to contain any signs of amusement. The guy was glowering at Darcy like she’d personally offended him.

A noise from the bundle had Darcy, Clint and Loki’s attention turning to it instantly, and in a moment their faces changed from amusement to adoration.

“Here, lemme hold her a moment,” the blonde man, Clint if Rogue had read Darcy’s introductions right, held out his arms and took the bundle from the other man – Loki. Clint cradled the infant, leaning down to nuzzle at her face – or where Rogue assumed the infant’s face to be. Loki was shrugging out of his sweater, an action which confused the teenaged mutants at the table until his entire appearance shifted. His skin turned blue – a different blue to Mystique, but blue nonetheless – his eyes turned red, and strange markings appeared on his skin. The air around them all went a little colder, but that was ignored in favour of watching the very male Loki change forms into that of a female. Darcy draped the discarded sweater over one side of Loki’s body, and after fiddling a little underneath it the blue person took back the infant and shuffled around for a moment.

It took Rogue a minute to realise that Loki was feeding the child, and she averted her eyes when she did.

“So…” Bobby trailed off when red, brown and blue-green eyes snapped to his face. “Sorry, just… just curious… are you a mutant?”

“No,” Loki murmured, voice a husky alto. “I am one of the Jötunn, a race from another planet, and am also gifted with seíðr – magic – which allows me to shapeshift.”

“Oh.” There was silence for a moment. “Cool.”

Darcy grinned at Bobby, while Loki looked startled.

“We keep telling him that he’s awesome no matter what, but he keeps choosing not to believe us,” she said cheerfully. Loki rolled his – her, their – red eyes.

“It is harder than that to break a thousand years of belief that your race is that of monsters, _svass_ ,” they said. “I am trying.”

“We know,” Clint spoke up for the first time, sliding an arm over Loki’s shoulders and kissing their temple. “That’s why we keep saying it.”

“Damn straight,” Darcy grinned, kissing Loki’s other cheek. “Blue, white, male, female, neither, both – it doesn’t matter.” Loki rolled their eyes, but Bobby – if not everyone else – could see the fondness in the red orbs. Darcy turned her attention to the teenagers. “So, I’m guessing from his display earlier and his name that Pyro over there has powers relating to fire, but what about the rest of you? If you don’t mind me asking, that is,” she added quickly.

“I don’t mind,” Bobby smiled at her. “I can create and manipulate ice.” He did what he’d done for Rogue over a year previously, placing a hand on the table and concentrating his power until an ice rose had formed out of the air. “My codename is Iceman.”

“So cool!” Darcy beamed, examining the rose. “Hey, Loki, you got ice powers too, yeah?”

“You know I have little control over them, _svass_ ,” Loki said mildly, clearly more interested in the infant they were feeding. “It is more a defence mechanism than anything else at present.”

“I could…” Bobby hesitated as Loki looked at him. “I could maybe help you out with that? I’ve had heaps of practice.”

“That would be most welcome,” Loki said after a moment. “Thank you.” Bobby grinned.

“I can alter my molecular structure,” Piotr spoke up a moment later, skin shifting to metal a moment later. “In the field I am called Colossus.”

“I can see why,” Clint grinned at him. “That must come in handy, right?”

“It can be useful, yes,” Piotr conceded, shifting back to flesh.

“My power is dangerous,” Rogue sighed when Darcy looked at her curiously. “When I touch another person, I drain their life force. When I’m touching another mutant, I gain their powers temporarily. I can’t control it yet.”

“That must suck heaps,” Darcy sounded sympathetic, but not pitying. “Loki used to freak out that he’d give us all frostbite ‘cause of him being Jötunn. I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually, like he did.” Rogue smiled at Darcy, just a little smile.

“Thank you.”

“No problem.” Eyes turned to Kitty, and she sighed.

“I can phase through stuff,” she shrugged, and proved her point by disappearing through her chair and the table before stepping up out of the floor a few feet away.

“That is so fucking awesome!” Clint laughed, grinning widely.

“You freak us all out enough by popping out of the vents unexpectedly, you are not seeing if Dad can find a way to use tech to phase through walls too,” Darcy scolded him, and from the sheepish look on Clint’s face that had been exactly what he was thinking.

Hela made a little sound, and Darcy’s attention was drawn instantly to the baby. She reached out and took her from Loki, who had shifted back to a male form but remained blue-skinned and red-eyed, and while the Jötunn – whatever that was – rearranged his shirt and sweater the curvy young woman carefully propped the baby up on her shoulder and patted her back firmly, getting a solid burp from the child and smiling as she brought her back down into her arms.

“Hey there, baby girl,” Darcy murmured, using one hand to stroke the child’s face gently. She was totally engrossed in the child, oblivious to the outside world as the five mutants and her two partners watched her.

“So you can shapeshift, you said?” Kitty asked of Loki curiously. The Jötunn inclined his head.

“I can. Part of it is due to my species and gender, the rest due to my training in magic during my youth and adolescence.”

“Species and gender?” Rogue was just as curious, but then blushed. “I’m so sorry, that was so rude of me.”

“It is fine,” Loki gave her a small smile. “I just ask you keep this information to yourself, as it is very personal. I am Jötunn, as I already said, the common name for which is ‘frost giant’.”

“You do not seem very giant,” Piotr said sceptically. Loki snorted.

“I am a runt of my race, yes, but for my gender I am only slightly too small. Jötunn have three genders. Male-equivalent, female-equivalent, and a third which does not translate well. I am of the third gender. That is what allows me my shapeshifting abilities and my magic.”

“So many people could benefit from that ability,” Rogue was thinking of one of her friends, back before her mutation manifested. “One of my friends when I was fourteen was genderfluid,” she explained to the confused group. “Shapeshifting would make the changes easy.”

“Oh, god, they so would,” Darcy sighed. She smiled at the surprised looks she received. “I’m not non-binary, but I have had friends who are.” The teens nodded.

“So are either of you mutants or something?” Pyro asked bluntly.

“John!” Rogue and Bobby scolded him in unison.

“No, not mutants,” Clint shook his head. “I’m also known as Hawkeye, if you didn’t know,” he added. “I never miss a target. Better than perfect vision, with extreme peripheral vision,” he shrugged at the looks he got. “Back when I was a kid, my trainer thought I might be a mutant, but he got me checked out and it turns out I’m just a freak of nature.”

“Deaf as a post, though,” Darcy muttered, and dodged the swat Clint aimed at her. “What? It’s true. You just happen to be wearing your aids.” Clint shrugged.

“Works for me.”

“What about you?” Pyro demanded of Darcy. She lifted her head and raised an eyebrow. “You got any power or skill?”

“I’m not a mutant, nor am I a superhero or villain,” Darcy replied easily. “But I once Tazed Thor and managed to knock him flat on his ass.” Loki snickered at that. “I live with the Avengers and deal with their shit on a day to day basis.” She ignored Clint’s pout. “Tony Stark is my biological father and I’m in a relationship with these two – Hawkeye and the God of Mischief – and I rarely need them to protect me. I don’t need to be a mutant or have some sort of scientifically-granted power to be awesome.”

“You're great as you are, babe,” Clint agreed, leaning over to kiss Darcy’s forehead. “Though I still pity you for having Stark as your dad.”

“He makes your arrows and upgrades your bow. Don’t let him hear you badmouth him,” Darcy said mildly, and Clint raised his hands in surrender.

“She’s got you whipped,” Pyro snorted. He ignored the hissed chastisement from Bobby and the glare from Rogue, instead looking Darcy up and down pointedly. “She not put out if you go against her?”

“One, I’m right here, dickhead,” Darcy said coldly. “Two, I’m asexual. I don’t ‘put out’ for anyone.” She passed Hela to Loki and stood. “I’m going to see if Sam’s up yet. I need to vent.”

“See you later,” Clint gave her a small smile, and she bent to peck his lips lightly. She repeated the action with Loki, who reached up briefly to stroke her hair.

“Would you like me to procure you some ice cream?”

“Nah, a rant will do me this time,” Darcy smiled down at him. “Ben & Jerry’s is specifically reserved for people who know I’m ace and still do this shit. See you later.”

“Remember that Sam’s not a morning person when he doesn’t have to be,” Clint called after her.

“I know, I wake him up half the time,” she called back, and disappeared. When she was gone, Clint and Loki turned dark looks on Pyro.

“You're a dick,” Kitty told the other mutant bluntly. “Even if she wasn’t ace, that’s not something you say to someone, especially not someone you’ve just met.”

“It is very rarely acceptable to say such a thing,” Loki said darkly, red eyes about boring holes in Pyro. “Even the closest of friends would rarely jest about such a thing.”

Hela shifted in Loki’s arms and let out a cranky little sound, reaching out with grasping hands. Loki sighed and stood, cradling his daughter close.

“If you will excuse me, my daughter requires her mother.”

“How can she be her mother if she’s asexual?”

“Biologically, Hela is mine and Loki’s,” Clint drawled. “That doesn’t stop Darcy being her mother. ‘Scuse me, I gotta check on my partners and my daughter.”

“You are such a dick,” Rogue and Kitty told Pyro flatly once the archer was gone.

Pyro sank down in his seat.


	26. Chapter 26

Unhappy

It didn’t take a genius to see that Darcy wasn’t happy. All a person had to do was see her downturned mouth and the stress lines forming around her eyes, and they would know instantly that something had upset her.

Sam knew Darcy well.

“What happened?” he asked as soon as he opened the door to find her there. Behind him, Pietro was still asleep in the nest of blankets and pillows the two of them had made.

“One of the teens here is an insensitive, prejudiced dickhead,” Darcy hissed.

“You met Pyro, then,” Pietro said sleepily, sitting up and yawning. Darcy paused mid-step, mulling that over.

“So he’s a dick to everyone?”

“Nearly. He’s had a rough time of things, so he tends to lash out. Non-mutants are his first target, then women. He’s got deep-seated psychological reasons, and they’re damn good ones, but even though his reasons are valid he’s still a prejudiced and insensitive dickhead,” Pietro acknowledged. Darcy sighed, the wind taken out of her sails.

“Well that just takes all the fun out of dissing him for being an asshole,” she whined. Sam laughed quietly.

“Yeah, I can tell. C’mon in, we’ll watch morning cartoons together.”

“You're the best,” Darcy told her best friend. “The absolute best.”

“Damn right he is,” Pietro grinned. Had he been talking about anyone else, there would be unmistakeable innuendo in those words. Talking about Sam, however, Darcy knew that it was genuine and not at all sexual. “He gives the best hugs and massages, am I right?”

“You are so right,” Darcy agreed. “Plus he shares ice cream instead of hogging it all, and is the best person to rant to.”

“You do realise that ‘he’ is still right here, yeah?” Sam asked dryly, and both Pietro and Darcy laughed as they nodded.

“We’re just telling you what we love about you,” Darcy smiled at him, and shoved him onto the bed next to Pietro. “C’mon, cartoons.”

Not long later, Loki and Clint joined them with Hela, and they all spent the majority of the morning watching the cartoons.

Mean

Kriti skipped along down the hallway, Peter following her at a distance – close enough to see her constantly and get to her if she needed help, but far enough away to give her the impression that she was allowed to make her way to the dining hall on her own. Peter smiled when he was joined by Wanda, who was watching Kriti with fond amusement as they followed the little girl to breakfast.

“Pyro has already managed to upset Darcy and by extension Clint and Loki,” Wanda sighed.

“Pyro?”

“Pyrokinetic teenager with anger – and other – issues.”

“That is not a good mix.”

“No, not usually, but he is currently unable to create the fire he uses without his lighter, so he is not as dangerous as he could be.”

“Good. What did he do?”

“Insinuated that Darcy kept Clint in line through sex or the threat of withholding it,” Wanda sighed.

“Fucking hell,” Peter cursed quietly, thankful that Kriti was far enough ahead she didn’t hear him. “Where are Darcy and Clint now?”

“With Loki, Hela, Sam and Pietro, watching the morning cartoons,” Wanda replied promptly. Peter laughed.

“Cartoons are her and Sam’s go-to when they’re pissed off at ‘the allosexuals’.” Yes, he finger-quoted. What of it? “I’m assuming they’re not coming to breakfast with us, then.”

“So it seems,” Wanda agreed, and the two of them hurried to catch up to Kriti.

“You're not nice,” the little girl was telling a brunette teenager when Peter and Wanda caught up to the little girl.

“Kriti, sweetheart, come here,” Peter sighed in relief when the girl was within reach again, dropping to his knees to hug her close. He didn’t see the scowl on the teen’s face. “Don’t disappear on me like that, okay?”

“But Papa…”

“Kriti, last time I lost sight of you when I didn’t leave you with one of your aunts and uncles, you were nearly taken away from me and your Daddy forever. Stay where I can see you, okay?” Kriti sighed and pouted, and again unseen by Peter the teenager’s scowl disappeared to be replaced by a generally sour expression.

“Fine. But he was being a meanie.” She gestured to the sour-faced teen. The teen reminded Peter of Flash Thompson – hurting and trying to make other people hurt so that it didn’t hurt so much.

“Sometimes people are mean so that other people don’t see how much they’re hurting,” Peter told his daughter softly. “That doesn’t mean you get to be mean right back, okay?” Kriti pouted more, but Peter just raised an eyebrow and she huffed.

“Fine.” She turned to the teen. “Sorry I said you're not nice. I’m sure you are, but you weren’t nice to me so mnyuh,” Kriti finished by poking her tongue out, and Peter just about choked.

“Kriti!”

“Yes, Papa?” Kriti’s expression was pure innocence.

“You are so not allowed to spend time around your Daddy when I’m not there anymore,” Peter sighed. “He is such a bad influence.”

“You always say that, and yet you never follow through on your threat,” Wanda chuckled in amusement, and then she looked at the teen and a frown formed on her face. Peter hurried Kriti into the dining hall so she wouldn’t hear what Wanda had to say. “Pyro. Please refrain in future from making comments on peoples’ sex lives. Darcy did not deserve that.”

“Why is she so sensitive about it?” Pyro scowled. Wanda glanced around, and then glared at Pyro and got into his personal space.

“She has spent the majority of her life dealing with people who believe that her sexuality is abnormal, wrong, or not real. Then recently, an ex of hers decided to kidnap her and try to force her to have sex with him, thinking that would _cure her_. Sound even vaguely familiar?” Pyro went pale and swallowed.

“Yeah.”

“So when you see her next, you will apologise. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. Excuse me, I believe Peter wanted me to introduce him and his daughter to a few people.” Wanda entered the dining hall, leaving John trembling in the hallway.


	27. Chapter 27

Choices

Bucky scowled at the hate mail still rolling in. Even with the main foci of the hate mail gone, they were still getting an awful lot. And most of it was absolutely ridiculous. What the hell was wrong with people?

They hated him for ‘corrupting’ Captain America with his ‘sinful and vile inclinations’ – they probably wouldn’t believe him if he told them (truthfully) that Steve had been the one to make the move on him, not the other way around.

They hated Wanda and Pietro for being mutants, which was completely and utterly out of their control, and they hated Sam for being in a relationship with Pietro. They hated Tony for no longer producing weapons. They hated Loki for the Chitauri incident – which had happened over five years ago, for fuck’s sake – even though it had been proven that the Jötunn had been under the control of a more powerful being.

They hated Spiderman because of the Daily Bugle and John Jonah Jameson, believing what the paper printed instead of learning for themselves what Spiderman was like and what he actually did.

They hated Clint and Natasha for being part of SHIELD, for being spies and assassins, even though the two of them rarely went on missions for SHIELD anymore and when they did it was usually out of the USA.

Very few hated Bruce Banner, but a lot of them – mainly army widows – hated the Hulk for the deaths of their partners. They didn’t seem to realise that the fault for those deaths fell on General Thaddeus Ross’s shoulders, as the Hulk hadn’t appeared after its initial creation until the army had tried to bring Bruce in by force. And really, the Hulk wouldn’t even exist if Ross hadn’t had Bruce trying to replicate the Super Soldier Serum.

People were idiots, and Bucky didn’t know why he bothered fighting for them.

 _“Mister Barnes, please direct your attention to the third unopened envelope to your right,”_ JARVIS said briskly, interrupting Bucky’s seething. Frowning, he found the envelope JARVIS wanted him to find, and opened it carefully. He tugged out the letter inside and skimmed it, before pausing and rereading it properly.

_To all the residents of Avengers Tower,_

_Thank you. Just, thank you. I know that so many people hate you for stupid reasons, including for things you can’t control, so I just wanted to let you know that there are a lot of people out there who appreciate everything you do for us._

_My mom practically assaulted Scarlet Witch in the street the other week, so I thought I’d apologise again for that. Mom’s narrow-minded and one of those religious people who hate everything and everyone not like them. Luckily my Dad taught me and my sisters better than that, huh?_

Bucky smiled.

_Anyway, as I was saying, thank you. I’m pretty sure my mom isn’t the only one who hates you for stupid reasons, so I’m sure you guys get a lot of hate mail. So here’s a non-hate letter._

_Avengers, thank you for saving us from the Chitauri._

_Captain America, Falcon, Black Widow and Winter Soldier, thank you for saving us from HYDRA._

_Spiderman, thank you for saving us from the common criminals on the streets and that weird lizard creature thing a few years back._

_Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, thank you for defending us while the Fantastic Four took out Doctor Doom during his first emergence four years ago – I know there’d be a lot more casualties without you two helping out, even if a lot of people don’t remember or recognise that you did._

_Thor and Loki, thank you for stopping that thing in London. I’m well aware it would’ve caused the whole world problems, even if Mom and a whole bunch of other people aren’t._

_Iron Man, thank you for drawing the Mandarin away from civilians at the risk of your own life – and for taking that nuke through the portal the Chitauri were coming from. You are badass and I’m surprised you're still alive._

_To those of you behind the scenes, thank you for keeping our heroes alive, healthy and happy. Even if I don’t know who you are, I know you're there helping when things get tough. So thank you. Without you, I’m pretty sure that none of the heroes who have saved us would still be around, or even be inclined to helping out._

_My dad said it’s our choices that define us, not our birth or our upbringing. My choice is to support you and all other heroes all the way, because I know that you don’t have to save us from these threats that keep popping up and yet you all choose to do it anyway._

_Stay safe, and thank you again for everything you’ve done._

_Sincerely,_

_Conrad Taylor._

Bucky folded the letter carefully.

“How did you know that wasn’t hate mail?” he asked quietly.

 _“There is a return address on the envelope which mentions the young man’s name,”_ JARVIS responded promptly. _“I searched my sources for him, and found security footage of him apologising to Miss Maximoff for his mother’s behaviour three weeks ago. Taking that incident into account, as well as reports of him being punished for fighting in defence of other students, I came to the conclusion that his letter was likely not derogatory.”_

“I’m going to show the others. Thanks, JARVIS.”

_“You are most welcome, Mister Barnes.”_


	28. Chapter 28

Wicked

Pietro was feeling much, much better. Now that the curse was gone and he had healed up from its effects, he could move faster than human speed again.

It was wicked.

Sam was happy for him too, and Pietro could see that that happiness was completely and utterly genuine. Sam didn’t have a mean bone in his body, something that Pietro loved about him.

That wasn’t to say that Sam was a pushover or naïve or anything – far from it. But Sam was never malicious in any way, even when angered or frustrated. That was one of the reasons Pietro loved him so much.

“Hey, Silver,” Pyro greeted Pietro when the silver-haired man came to a stop in the dining hall.

“Hey,” Pietro returned, doing his best not to lash out. When Darcy had come to him and Sam that morning on the verge of frustrated tears, and Pietro had heard that Pyro was the cause, it had taken nearly all his willpower not to hunt Pyro down and give him a smack down he wouldn’t forget any time soon.

Pyro was lucky Wanda had got to him first.

“Who’s the guy?” Bobby asked giving a jerk of his head towards the doorway. Pietro turned just enough to see who it was, and smiled.

“That’s Sam. He’s my boyfriend.”

“Nice,” Rogue nodded approvingly. “He take good care of you?”

“Yeah,” Pietro admitted a little shyly, ducking his head. Sam was so good to him. “He does.”

“Who does what?” Sam asked, slipping an arm around Pietro’s shoulders and giving him a little hip bump.

“Nothing,” Pietro muttered, fighting back a blush. Sam raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t push.

Turned out he didn’t have to.

“Just making sure Quicksilver’s man is taking good care of him,” Rogue smirked, getting a betrayed look from Pietro and a laugh from Sam.

“I like to think I do,” Sam said easily, releasing his hold on Pietro to take a seat. “I’m Sam Wilson.” Pietro sat down beside him, pressing their legs together beneath the table.

“I’m Rogue,” the girl with the white streak smiled back at Sam – it was next to impossible to not like the man. “This is Pyro and Bobby,” she added, gesturing to the two. “Kitty and Piotr went to grab some food.”

“Pyro and Bobby, got it,” Sam gave a nod. He then focused specifically on Pyro. “Darcy’s my best friend and like a sister to me, so if I hear you’ve upset her again, I won’t leave you to Wanda.” Pyro scowled but nodded, and Pietro wondered what his sister had said to the pyrokinetic to get him so subdued. “Good. Glad we’ve reached an understanding.”

“Dude, you scary,” Bobby blurted, and Sam’s serious expression dissolved into a sheepish smile as he shrugged.

“I was army for over a decade. Still kinda am but not quite. It’s hard to explain,” he admitted with another easy shrug.

“So you're the one she went to rant to after Pyro stuck his foot in it earlier?” Rogue asked as Piotr and Kitty returned with trays of food.

“Yeah, we ended up just watching cartoons for most of the morning,” Sam confessed with a chuckle. “It’s a thing.”

“It started a few years back,” Pietro nodded agreement. “The two of them watch cartoons and rant when someone’s been a dick to them about their sexuality.”

“And eat ice cream when it’s someone who should know better,” Sam added.

“Sounds like the typical girl’s breakup routine, to be honest,” Kitty grinned.

“That’s partially what it started as, considering it was a bad breakup for Darcy that started the whole thing,” Sam grinned back at the girl. “Then it just turned into a regular rant session when someone pissed us off.”

“It’s a wonder we’re still our gorgeous fit selves, considering how much ice cream we eat,” Darcy teased as she came up behind Sam and Pietro, hugging them both around the shoulders from behind and then slipping into the seat beside Sam. Loki and Clint, the latter carrying a sleeping Hela, weren’t far behind. Loki had magicked a few trays of food to follow them, and he settled them onto the table with a twist and flick of his fingers.

“I run nearly every morning,” Sam reminded her. “And you just don’t gain weight, you lucky bitch.”

“I got my dad’s metabolism,” Darcy shrugged with a grin. “Mom is so jealous. Well, she would be if she knew.”

“I still want to shoot your mom full of arrows sometimes,” Clint muttered.

“And I told you, no. You can shoot her with Nerf bullets, but not arrows. Besides, the Nerf bullets will piss her off more.”

“Oh, good,” Clint perked up a bit at Darcy’s allowance. “I haven’t been allowed a Nerf gun for years.”

“Phil get sick of you shooting him from the vents?” Sam asked, and Clint grinned at him.

“I deny everything.”

“Of course you do.”

“What does he do now?” Peter asked as he walked up, carrying Kriti easily in one arm.

“Denies shooting Phil with Nerf guns.”

“Bull,” Peter snorted, and took the remaining free seat at the table. Wanda had told him she wouldn’t make it to lunch. “Wanda sends her apologies for not being here. She’ll see you all at dinner.”

“She’s gone to see Billy and Tommy again, hasn’t she?” Pietro asked. Peter nodded. “I thought so.”

“Who are Billy and Tommy?” Kitty asked curiously.

“Her sons,” Pietro responded, and grinned at the spluttering from his fellow mutants. “She can alter reality, and they were her twin sons in a future that hasn’t happened because she altered reality to save it. When she did it they were erased, but reborn closer to her actual birth. They’re not biologically hers, but their souls are the same.”

“How the hell does that work?” Bobby wanted to know.

“Beats me, but that’s the simple version of what Wanda told me,” Pietro shrugged.

“It’s all very convoluted,” Darcy smiled at the confused teens. “The how isn’t important, but the two of them treat Wanda as their mother and she treats them like her sons. It works and they’re happy, so that’s all that matters.”

“Fair enough,” Bobby conceded. In unspoken agreement, the entire group decided that was enough chatter and that it was time to eat.

Hell

“Hey, Parker, I found something of yours wandering around outside,” Logan called, shoving the red and black figure of Deadpool into the large entertainment room. Peter groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Oh, fucking hell. Thanks, Logan. Mind watching Kriti for me?”

“Fine. Where is the little monster?”

“With Banshee. Thanks.”

Logan left with a nod of acknowledgement to the thanks, and Peter turned his full attention to the mercenary currently pulling himself to his feet. The mutants in the room – Kitty, Piotr, Rogue, Pyro, Bobby, Gambit and Angel – were eyeing Deadpool warily, each of them ready to defend Peter from the mercenary if they had to.

“What are you doing here?” Peter demanded of his partner.

“What, I can’t drop by and say hi anymore?” Deadpool pouted.

“You said you’d be gone for another month, Wade,” Peter reminded him, arms crossed over his chest and feet planted firmly on the floor.

“You know this crazy bastard, Parker?” Gambit drawled before Deadpool – Wade – could answer.

“Yes, I do, and I unfortunately can be considered just as crazy considering we’re as good as married,” Peter admitted with a heavy sigh. His arms fell from their crossed position over his chest when Deadpool inched closer to him, and while the mutants gaped and spluttered in shock he allowed himself to be hugged around the waist by the merc. Wade buried his head in Peter’s shoulder, his large frame dwarfing Peter’s lithe and slightly short body, and Peter wrapped his arms around Wade’s large shoulders in return.

“Missed you,” Wade admitted, his voice just barely loud enough for Peter to hear him.

“You too,” he whispered back, tightening his hold in a brief squeeze.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Pyro blurted. “You're in a relationship with _Deadpool?_ ”

“Yeah,” Peter sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he was released long enough to turn around. Wade then latched onto him again from behind, head on Peter’s shoulder and arms around his waist. “He’s batshit crazy, but he kinda grows on you.”

“Like fungus,” Logan drawled, re-entering the room with Kriti on his shoulders.

“Daddy!” the little girl squealed, launching herself off Logan. In a move so fast the watching mutants nearly missed it, Peter swung himself up and around onto Deadpool’s right shoulder, perching there precariously and yet managing to catch Kriti without falling or even coming close to doing so.

“What have I told you about jumping at your Daddy when he’s not paying attention in costume?” Peter scolded his daughter.

“Not to,” she pouted at him.

“That’s right.” With Kriti in one arm, Peter easily jumped to the floor from Deadpool’s shoulder and turned to be hugged again by the merc.

“Hey there, baby girl,” Deadpool’s voice was fond as he pressed his masked forehead to Kriti’s bare one.

“Hi, Daddy.”

“Have you been good for your Papa?”

“Yes!”

“Mostly,” Peter corrected dryly. Kriti pouted up at him, and he rolled his eyes. “Don’t give me that look, you were rude to Pyro earlier.”

“The kid probably deserved it,” Deadpool muttered, getting a punch on the shoulder from Peter. “What? He probably did,” the merc defended. Peter just glared at him.

The mutants in the room, bar Logan, were all still stunned speechless.

What the hell?!


	29. Chapter 29

Pretty

Ororo Munroe was surprised and slightly concerned to see infamous mercenary Deadpool, real name Wade Wilson, with an arm around one of the professor’s guests and a child in his other arm. The adult, Peter Parker if Ororo recalled correctly, looked slightly exasperated but not scared or concerned. The child, on the other hand, looked absolutely delighted as she chattered away to the mercenary.

“Hello,” Ororo greeted them a tad warily. The trio all looked at her. “I am Ororo Munroe.”

“Peter Parker,” the Professor’s guest smiled at her, “the little chatterbox is Kriti, my adopted daughter.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you,” Ororo smiled. The child looked at her with wide eyes, which changed before Ororo’s eyes to be a beautiful golden-brown colour while her hair changed to white like Ororo’s.

“You're really pretty,” the little girl, Kriti, said shyly. Ororo was charmed.

“Thank you, little one.” Kriti blushed a little and hid her face in Deadpool’s neck, the merc laughing in a strangely normal manner before Peter Parker elbowed him and frowned disapprovingly.

“Don’t laugh at her, Wade,” he scolded.

“Sorry, Petey.”

“No you're not,” Peter sighed, shaking his head. Kriti turned out of Deadpool’s hold and reached for Peter, being passed to the smaller man easily by the mercenary. “So do I call you Miss Munroe or do I call you Ororo?” Peter asked of the woman. Ororo smiled again.

“I answer to Ororo or Storm, and you may call me either.” She paused as the Professor’s voice whispered in her mind. “Mister Wilson, Professor Xavier would like to speak with you.”

“Ugh, fine,” Deadpool whined, and leaned down to Peter’s level to – much to Ororo’s surprise – raise his mask enough to kiss the man quickly. “I’ll come find you later.”

“Don’t hurt or mentally scar anyone,” Peter replied calmly, and even Ororo saw the grin before Deadpool’s mask covered his face entirely again. “I mean it, Wade.”

“Spoilsport,” Deadpool pouted, but he didn’t seem to be seriously considering harming any of the Mansion’s residents or guests.

“Please follow me,” Ororo turned to lead the way to the Professor’s office.

Foul

“WADE! GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE, YOU CRAZY BASTARD!”

“Logan! Do not swear in front of the students!” Ororo scolded. Wolverine didn’t appear to be listening, or even care to do so, as he chased a cackling Deadpool through the Mansion.

“Yeah, Wolvie, not in front of the kids!” Deadpool called back to Wolverine with a mad cackle. He dodged a swipe from Wolverine’s claws – not that he wouldn’t have healed up pretty quickly – and blew Peter a kiss as he darted past the frowning man and a group of students.

“Excuse me a moment, I need to go maim my boyfriend,” Peter managed through gritted teeth, gently pushing Kriti to Kitty’s side. “Keep an eye on Kriti for me, please.”

“Uh, sure,” Kitty placed a hand on Kriti’s shoulder without even really thinking about it, and Peter gave her a tight-lipped smile. He started to stride after Deadpool and Wolverine, rolling up his shirt sleeves as he did so and revealing a pair of strange devices on his wrists.

Deadpool came rushing back into sight, and skidded to a halt in front of Peter.

“Uh, hey there, Petey,” the mercenary greeted in what he clearly thought was a charming, winning tone. “Fancy seeing you here…”

“You have three seconds to run,” Peter interrupted flatly. Deadpool gulped audibly. “One…”

Deadpool turned and ran. “Two…” Wolverine skidded to a halt as Deadpool dashed past him. “Three.”

Deadpool was still in sight, and a millisecond after Peter had finished his count the shorter man raised his now-bared right arm and did _something_ with his hand that had a stream of a white rope-like substance flying down the hallway. It latched onto Deadpool’s back, and Peter turned his hand to grasp the rope/thread tightly.

Peter braced himself and pulled, and the mercenary came flying back down the hallway, screaming like a terrified child the whole way. He crashed into the floor and rolled to a stop right at Peter’s feet, the smaller man staring down at him with his arms crossed over his chest. The rolling had wrapped Deadpool up in the thread that Peter had used to pull him back down the hallway.

“Hey there Petey,” Deadpool said again. He tugged against the thread binding him, getting absolutely nowhere.

“Wade.” Deadpool flinched at the completely flat tone of Peter’s voice, and started struggling harder. “I specifically told you not to hurt or mentally scar anyone. That includes pissing off Wolverine.”

“I just—”

“Wade.” Deadpool fell silent and still. “I’m going to hang you from the roof. I may or may not let you down before nightfall.” Deadpool whined wordlessly, but didn’t fight against Peter or his strange ropes as the smaller man wrapped him up (more) securely in them and then hoisted the mercenary over his shoulder. The show of strength had the teenaged mutants gaping at the lithe man. “Kriti, this is why you are not supposed to be unsupervised around your Daddy. Understand?”

“Yes, Papa,” Kriti chirped. “Can I come watch you hang Daddy from the roof?”

“Sure.”

Kriti ran forwards and grasped Peter’s free hand, beaming as she walked alongside her adoptive Papa.

“What the fuck just happened?” Pyro blurted.

“John, language!” Ororo scolded.

Pride

“So does Parker have powers or something?” Pyro demanded.

“Yes. It’s up to him if he wants to let you know what they are or how he got them, though. He doesn’t have the X-gene,” Darcy added calmly, braiding Kriti’s currently waist-length light brown hair. She would probably change it back to short and black when she got bored of having it long, but while it was long she enjoyed having Darcy or someone else braid it. Hela was asleep in a bassinet beside Darcy.

“So he’s, what, developed them?”

“Sort of. As I said, it’s up to him if he tells you anything.”

“What was that rope?” Kitty asked before Pyro could get snappy with Darcy.

“It’s a creation of my Dad’s,” Peter said as he entered the room. “I refined it and completed the project, and now I use it for my own purposes.”

“Those purposes being…?”

“Nice try, Pyro, but I don’t know you well enough to just blab my secrets,” Peter smirked at the irritated teen.

“You’re much stronger than you look, aren’t you?” Rogue asked, eyeing Peter’s lithe frame.

“Yep.”

“How?”

“Not telling yet.”

“Darn it,” Rogue pouted. Peter ruffled her hair, seeming unafraid that he might accidentally touch her skin and have part of his life force drained.

“Nice try, though,” he smirked down at her. Rogue scowled at him, but the expression didn’t last long before she was smiling again.

“Why don’t you want to tell? Other than not knowing us that well?” Bobby wanted to know.

“It’s a matter of pride, I guess. I’ve managed to keep it secret from everyone apart from those I consider my family for over five years, and I’m pretty proud of that,” Peter admitted.

“Especially considering the show-offs we live with,” Darcy sighed, finishing her braiding of Kriti’s hair and pressing a kiss to the top of the girl’s head. “All done, sweetie.”

“Thanks, Aunty Darcy,” Kriti smiled up at her and ran over to Peter to be swung up into his arms with ease. “Look, Papa, isn’t it pretty?”

“Very pretty, sweetheart,” Peter assured her, smiling at her enthusiasm. “Let me take a photo to show your Aunt Pepper?” Kriti nodded happily, and Peter pulled out a Starkphone to take a picture of the intricate braid Darcy had woven into Kriti’s hair. The phone was returned to his pocket immediately, and he set Kriti back down on her feet so she could rush over to show Clint and Loki, who had just entered the room, the braid in her hair.

“Pride, huh?” Darcy asked Peter, who just grinned and shrugged.


	30. Chapter 30

Reckless

When Wanda went to meet up with her sons, she was not expected to find them the way she did. The sheer recklessness of their actions had her both furious and devastatingly worried, as she could not bear to lose them to foolishness in their youth.

Thankfully, she was not alone in berating them. Teddy was just as worried and angry as Wanda was, and America was scowling at Tommy and Billy as they joined the trio on solid ground.

“I don’t know what to say to you,” America told her teammates, scowling darkly. “Even if I did, you clearly wouldn’t listen to a word I have to say.”

“It was necessary, America,” Tommy protested.

“Necessary?” Wanda echoed incredulously. “What was necessary about that stupid stunt? What if you had _died_?”

“But we didn’t,” Billy frowned. “We weren’t in any danger…”

“Not in any danger? Really? There was a _sniper_! If Teddy hadn’t taken him out…” Wanda trailed off, shaking her head. “I don’t know what would happen if the two of you died. Billy, your powers and mine are so volatile, I don’t even know what would happen if you died… there is a huge possibility that either of us could destroy the world, the universe, even _reality_ , if something went wrong.”

The twins-but-not were silent for a long moment.

“Sorry,” Billy murmured, ducking his head.

“Same,” Tommy added quietly. “We’re sorry, Mom.” Wanda just nodded, still shaken by the near loss.

They definitely didn’t get their recklessness from _her_ … she blamed the manner of their rebirth.

Inside

Wade wriggled, twisted, huffed and wriggled again, and finally managed to get a blade in one hand. He sawed at his bonds awkwardly, wincing from time to time when he managed to get himself instead of the webbing his partner had used to bind him.

The sound of a throat clearing had him pausing in his efforts, and he twisted to look at the source. Peter was clinging to the wall beside him, an amused expression on his face.

“You do realise that no metal I’ve ever encountered can cut through that webbing unless it’s at exactly the right angle, right?” he asked Wade. The mercenary huffed.

“Did you check my blades too?”

“Yep. As I said, no metal I’ve encountered can cut my webbing at the wrong angle.”

“…can I come down now?”

“Only if you swear on Kriti not to cause any more problems on purpose.”

“…fine. I swear on Kriti that I won’t hurt anyone or piss Wolverine off.”

“If you annoy anyone to the point where they aim to harm you, I won’t protect you,” Peter warned, and took one of Wade’s knives to start cutting his lover free. “When you come inside, come straight to bed. Kriti’s staying in with Banshee and Shadowcat tonight.”

Wade grinned beneath his mask.

Home

“I had word from Tony this morning,” Charles told Darcy a couple of weeks after she and her family of choice arrived at the Mansion. “He says the hate mail has lessened greatly, and you are welcome to return to the Tower whenever you would like.”

“Awesome,” Darcy smiled. “Thanks, Professor,” she added, “for letting us stay here and all.”

“You are more than welcome, Darcy.”

“I think we might stay a couple more days, and then head home,” Darcy mused. “If that’s alright with you, of course.”

“As I said when you arrived, you are welcome to stay as long as you like,” the professor smiled. Darcy smiled back, and headed off to find her companions to let them know that it was safe for them to return home.

Home… before she moved into the Tower it had been almost eight years since she had had a proper home, but the Tower was most definitely her home now. All those she loved lived there, and it was where she felt safe.

It was her home, and she was more than ready to return.


	31. Chapter 31

Opportunity

He had been waiting for this for _years_.

He had planned and waited and plotted and paced and waited and now, finally now, he could put his plans into action. All he had needed was the opportunity to enact his plan, and finally he had been given that opportunity. There was no way, absolutely no possible way that his plan would not work. He was a tactical genius, and with the precision of his plans there was no possibility of failure.

He would capture the Hulk, and he would detain the beast until a way could be found to put it down for good. And then his country would be safe once more.

The beast might be masquerading as a man, as a hero, but he was a monster. There was no doubt in his mind of that. He would capture the monster, bring it down and restrain it and contain it, and then when he found a way to destroy it for good he would do so.

The Hulk could not be allowed to remain free.

And now Thaddeus Ross had found his opportunity to bring the beast down for good.

Soul

Did she have a soul?

After so long, after so much killing, after so many deaths by her hand, was it possible that she had a soul?

If she ever had, by now it was probably torn and rotted with all the evil she had done. It didn’t matter that it had been under the command of Thanos. It had still been her who had done the deed. The blame and all attached guilt fell on her shoulders.

“Gamora? Hey, you in here?” Rocket called, and she rubbed her hands briskly over her face before standing. Her palms came away damp, but she ignored it – she was not crying, there was no need for it and she wasn’t even sure she had tear ducts anymore. It must be perspiration. Not tears.

“Yes, Rocket, what is it?”

Perhaps she had a soul, perhaps she did not. Perhaps she used to have one, but perhaps she had never had one. But regardless of that, she had her friends, her comrades, and she was content with that.

Ethics

“I don’t give a damn how you go about it, just get it done!” General Thaddeus Ross slammed down his phone before his scientists could try to give him any more excuses. He didn’t give a damn about how ‘ethical’ the project was, as long as he got the results he wanted. He didn’t care how they tested the tranquilisers, and he didn’t care how they tested how to administer the tranquilisers, as long as they worked.

The green monster needed to be contained and later destroyed, before it could destroy anyone else. His poor daughter had already been tainted and destroyed, so he wasn’t going to let the monster do the same to anyone else.

If it already had tainted more victims, then Ross would do them a kindness and put them down too.

Witch

“Go to hell, witch!”

Wanda stumbled as something hard impacted with the back of her head, only being stopped from hitting the pavement hard by Darcy’s quick catch.

“Are you alright?” Darcy asked worriedly as she helped Wanda regain her balance. The mutant woman brought her hand to her head, feeling carefully around her skull for where the object had hit her. She winced when she found it, and when she pulled her hand away it was stained red with her blood. Wanda stared blankly at the sticky red on her fingertips, her head throbbing and her vision blurring.

Darcy swore viciously.

“Alright, who was the fucker who threw that?” she demanded, glaring around. Many of the onlookers shook their heads or shrugged, but no one owned up to it or pointed to anyone else.

Wanda wiped her hand off on her skirt, and placed a hand on Darcy’s arm.

“I’m alright, Darcy,” she tried to calm the older woman, but Darcy was having none of it. It probably didn’t help that Wanda’s words had slurred a little as she spoke, or that Darcy was still holding her upright.

“You are not,” Darcy hissed. “You're bleeding and you're probably concussed too.” Darcy looked around again, her free hand creeping towards where she hid her illegally-altered Taser in her belt. “I’ll ask one more time,” she growled audibly, glaring at the crowd around them, “Who the fuck threw that?”

“What are you going to do about it?” the same voice that had shouted for Wanda to go to hell spoke up, and a cruel little smile curled Darcy’s red, red lips. She was Tony Stark’s daughter, the PR manager for the Avengers (thanks to the amazing Pepper Potts), and a partner of Loki Liesmith. She was stronger and more powerful than anyone knew.

“Step forward and find out,” she taunted. She released her hold on Wanda and gave the younger woman a gentle push towards where Peter was standing, hands clenched into fists. The mutant leaned woozily against him, the slender man holding her up easily.

As expected, her words made the culprit step forward, cocky and so very sure of himself. He was almost six foot, broad in the shoulders and intimidating to most.

Not to Darcy. She had Tazed the God of Thunder, she had been trained in hand-to-hand by an assassin feared all over the world, and she lived with the Hulk. She was not intimidated by a small-minded bigot.

“So, what you gonna do, girl?” the man sneered. Darcy smiled, lips curling to reveal her sharp white teeth. Those more intelligent than the man – that being most of the watching crowd – stepped back after getting a good look at the young, apparently harmless, woman’s smile.

That smile was not a true smile – it was a feral baring of her teeth.

“Step closer,” she purred dangerously. She wouldn’t even use her Taser on this dickhead – why bother wasting the charge? The man hesitated, getting a better look at Darcy’s face. Her dangerous grin broadened. “Or are you scared?”

Again, the man let her taunt him into an act of stupidity.

“I ain’t scared of a weak bitch like you,” he announced, and stepped threateningly towards Darcy… into her range.

Idiot.

When Darcy moved, it was so unexpected that nearly everyone missed it. The woman ducked under the idiot’s reaching arm and grabbed his wrist in the process, twisting it up behind his back as she kicked his thigh to drop him to his knees. The man toppled forwards, using his free hand to brace himself as Darcy used her position over him to twist his arm into a lock that would break it if he moved the wrong way too far.

“Weak bitch, huh?” she asked him with a sneer. “So says the coward who threw a rock at someone from behind for no fucking reason.” The man growled and tried to move, but Darcy simply exerted a little more pressure on his arm to make him cry out in pain and stop moving. The watching crowd was both stunned and slightly afraid of this small but dangerous young woman. None of them noticed how Peter had been filming the entire thing on his state of the art Starkphone.

“I’ll gut you, bitch,” the man gasped, and Darcy raised an eyebrow at him.

“Oh, really?”

“You just wait,” he threatened.

“Are you telling me that you’re going to find me and hurt me, just because I defended myself and my friend against you?” Darcy asked lightly. There was a warning in her words, one that the man clearly didn’t catch.

“Damn right, bitch.”

“Oh, good. Peter, my dear almost-brother, did you get that?”

“Got it, Darcy,” Peter grinned at her, giving his Starkphone a little wiggle. “Tony’s going to have a field day with this.”

“Of course he is,” Darcy smirked, releasing the big man and darting out of his range. When he stumbled to his feet and turned on her furiously, she waggled a finger at him. “Ah-ah, don’t you even think of attacking me. You don’t even know who I am, do you?”

“You're a fucking mutant sympathiser, if you're not a mutant yourself,” the man snarled.

“Only partly right, lackwit,” Darcy carolled. “I’m the PR manager for the Avengers and all their affiliates. Not to mention most of the Avengers claim me as family,” she added with a bright, teeth-baring smile. The man paled. “So, let me hear again how you’re going to hurt me for defending my friend, who happens to be a member of the Avengers?”

People cheered and clapped for Darcy as the big idiot of a man turned and fled.

Darcy turned her gaze on them, face serious and a frown darkening her features.

“Don’t think you all get out of this scot-free,” she warned. “You all stood and did nothing as the Scarlet Witch was attacked by an idiot after all she’s done for this city and you people. You all stood and did nothing as that idiot threatened me, a woman barely over half his size. Think on what might have happened if I hadn’t been able to back my words up with my actions.”

She turned on her heel and stalked back towards Avengers Tower, Wanda and Peter close behind.

Idiotic sheep, all of them. This was why Darcy had little patience with most people outside the Tower.


	32. Chapter 32

Grenade

The first sign of something being wrong was the explosion which shook the Tower from the base to the penthouse. Those on the floors dedicated to Stark Industries screamed or otherwise freaked out, while those on the residential floors – and the recreational floors for residents – jumped to the alert or swore (or both, in some cases). Darcy and Jane found themselves being herded towards the helipad upon which the Quinjet rested, with Hela in Darcy’s arms and Kriti holding tight to Jane’s hand. Pepper snapped questions and instructions into her phone in front of them and Phil brought up the rear, Sam running ahead to pilot the Quinjet whilst the other heroes in residence rushed around gearing up.

“JARVIS, what’s happening?” Darcy demanded as she adjusted her hold on Hela and picked up her pace to keep up with Pepper.

 _“There appears to be an armed force outside the Tower,”_ JARVIS replied in his usual dry tones. _“I believe the explosion was caused by the grenades launched upon the orders of General Ross.”_

“That bastard is still alive and kicking?” Darcy exclaimed.

_“It appears so.”_

“God damn it.”

_“Indeed.”_

Prejudice

“JARVIS, get the Secretary of Defence on the line,” Tony ordered as his helmet and faceplate settled into face.

 _“Dialling now, Sir,”_ JARVIS intoned. Tony was furious, but refrained from his usual urge to swear as he took flight and headed down to where General Ross’s forces were surrounding his tower.

 _“Mr Stark.”_ The man’s face popped up in Tony’s HUD, having answered the video call promptly.

“Mr Secretary. Mind telling me who the fuck authorised General Ross to bring tanks and missiles to my tower?” Tony snarled, hovering just out of sight and range of the ‘good General’.

_“Excuse me?”_

“Ross has my tower surrounded with heavy artillery and just let off a bunch of grenades which made the entire fucking structure _shake_. Who the fuck authorised that?”

 _“No one authorised that,”_ the Secretary of Defence – whose name Tony could not for the life of him remember right now – frowned. _“What does he want?”_

“From previous experience, I’m guessing Doctor Banner,” Tony growled. “And I am not handing him over to be killed, experimented on, or used.”

 _“That is not to happen. If it comes to it, take him out. I don’t care how much force you have to use, just take him out with extreme prejudice if he threatens any civilians,”_ the Secretary growled back, and Tony remembered that this particular member of the government _liked_ Bruce. Even if Tony still couldn’t remember the man’s name…

“Sure thing,” Tony smirked, and the Secretary of Defence ended the video call.

Ross was going _down_.

Satisfaction

_“Hey Cap, I got orders from the Secretary of Defence,”_ Tony claimed cheerfully over the communication units all Avengers and associated heroes were equipped with.

“And those are?” Steve demanded, turning slightly away from General Ross and trusting Bucky and Nat to have his back. The Avengers and their compatriots were forming a blockade to the Tower, with the exception of Bruce, who Steve had sent to the Quinjet as soon as he realised who was outside the Tower.

_“Take him out with extreme prejudice if he threatens civilian lives. I think he’s already done that with his attack on my Tower, don’t you agree?”_

“Definitely,” Steve allowed a dark smile to curl his lips. “Not only did he threaten adult civilian lives, but also those of children.”

_“I’m so glad we think alike, Cap.”_

“SEND OUT BANNER AND NO ONE GETS HURT!” General Ross barked over his megaphone.

“That’s the sort of announcement you should make _before_ firing on a civilian building,” Tony snarked over his speaker systems as he landed in front of the Avenger blockade. “Hey there, Ross, got some orders for you from the Secretary of Defence. Cease and desist, or the Avengers take you out with full force.” General Ross stalked forwards so as to be heard without his megaphone.

“That monster is a danger to everyone!” Ross shouted, his face purpling with his anger. “Let me put the beast down and this will end!”

“Sorry, I don’t know what monster you're talking about,” Steve said bluntly. “There are no monsters in residence at the Tower.”

“Don’t play coy with me, boy,” Ross snarled, “you know exactly who I’m talking about!”

“Mind your tone,” Thor growled, tightening his grip on Mjolnir. “Do not speak to the Captain so.”

“Mind your own business,” Ross growled right back at Thor, and the god raised his brows as he crossed his thickly muscled arms over his torso. Mjolnir hung from one hand, swinging in a vaguely threatening manner.

“It is my business when you disparage and threaten my shield brothers,” the thunder god boomed at the general nicknamed ‘Thunderbolt’. “Be gone, or you shall face my wrath.”

“I’d listen if I were you,” Natasha smirked. “The big guy doesn’t like it when his sparring partners are threatened.”

“Verily.”

“Aw, c’mon, at least give me the satisfaction of taking him out,” Tony whined.

“I do believe Thor and I will beat you to it,” Loki chuckled darkly, allowing his pale-skinned glamour to slip away to reveal his blue skin and red eyes. Ross took a step back, disgust twisting his features, and both Thor and Loki stepped forward. Tony glanced between the two, smirked behind his mask, and stepped back to join the rest in forming their blockade.

Ross was fucked.

Ice

“It has been a long while since we have fought together in battle, brother,” Thor grinned, unfolding his arms and gripping Mjolnir’s handle firmly. Loki chuckled darkly.

“Indeed it has, brother mine. And I have some new skills to test in the field of battle,” the Jötunn drawled, one hand rising from his side as ice started to spread out from the ground around his feet.

Ross backed away faster, and Loki laughed again.

“I look forward to witnessing your prowess,” Thor’s grin was as dark as Loki’s mocking laughter. The air about the Tower began to drop in temperature, even as the fluffy white clouds overhead darkened and rumbled warningly.

“What are you doing?” Ross barked in panic. “Cease this at once!”

“You dare command the Crown Prince of Asgard?” Thor growled. “And the rightful king of Jötunheim?

“Now, now, brother,” Loki smirked at the panic on Ross’s face. “He is clearly not one of those who have been made aware of our status.” Thor chuckled.

“Verily, my brother. Shall we?”

“Hm. It is our duty to defend our shield brothers, is it not?” Loki asked mildly, and when he got the chuckling nod of agreement from Thor he knelt beside the Asgardian and placed his hands on the ground. Fingers spread, he focused his natural defences and smirked as ice spread rapidly from his hands.

The temperature dropped sharply. Ice sped across the flat concrete, growing up Ross’s legs to his hips to hold him in place even as it spread and grew over the tank and other army vehicles. Metal creaked and groaned, whilst glass shattered from the extreme and sudden temperature change. The ground behind Loki remained as it had been before Ross’s attack, although the breath of the Avengers frosted in the air with every exhale.

Ross struggled against the ice holding him from the hips down, his actions futile as the creeping ice ruined his assembled weaponry and restrained his armed forces.

“Damn, Loki, you got good at that,” Tony whistled lowly.

“I had some assistance from a delightful young man I met a few months ago,” Loki admitted calmly as he stood and smirked, surveying his work. “His advice has proven most useful.”

“I’ll say,” Clint echoed Tony’s approving whistle. “Damn, babe, you did good.”

“Save it for later, children,” Bucky snarked. “Let’s finish up here first, yeah?”

“Indeed,” Loki drawled, and turned to Thor. The thunder god grinned, and began to swing Mjolnir in tight circles. Overhead, the darkened clouds rumbled warningly and lit up with lightning.

General Ross paled drastically.


	33. Chapter 33

Experience

Olympia Fitzgerald – Ollie to her friends, Fitzgerald to others, Olympia to her mother and her mother alone – had a list of things she never, ever wanted to experience. Waterboarding was one, another was paraplegia or quadriplegia. She never wanted to experience sexual assault, and although things had come close a few times she’d managed to keep that one from being crossed off her list.

It had never occurred to her that electrocution was a possibility.

Now, however, she knew that it was.

And fuck, it hurt like nothing else! And she’d only got a short shock compared to what the General had to have experienced.

She had _not_ signed up for this! None of them had. She had not signed up to be frozen by a blue-skinned alien, nor had she signed up to be electrocuted by the Norse god of thunder. She had signed up to serve her country, to protect it and its people from threats, not to be hurt on her home soil!

 _“Everyone still alive in there?”_ Tony Stark’s voice echoed through the communications systems of the platoon – which, miraculously, was still working. Ollie managed a groan, which was echoed by her fellows. _“Oh, good. The only one I want dead is Ross, but he’s still kicking. Twitching, actually, which can’t be good for his…”_

 _“Tony.”_ Captain America cut in.

 _“Right, sorry, Cap.”_ Stark’s voice regained a semi-professional tone. _“Under the orders of the US Secretary of Defence, all soldiers under the command of General Thaddeus Ross are to surrender themselves into custody awaiting trial for the unprovoked attack on American citizens. Any who resist will be brought down using all necessary force.”_

Ollie sighed, and with stiff, slow movements, unbuckled her belt. She ignored the hissed ‘what are you doing?’ from her fellow soldiers, leaving all her weaponry on her seat as she stuck her hands out the shattered window. She opened her door from the outside and exited her vehicle, keeping her hands in sight at all times to show that she was unarmed.

She managed, on shaky legs, to move forward until she was standing in between the General’s immobilised troops and the Avengers. She lifted her chin proudly and stood as tall as she was able, ignoring the ranting, stuttered threats from the General.

She refused to die for his bullshit.

“Yes?” Stark asked. Ollie resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

“I didn’t sign up for this shit,” she announced calmly. “I’ll take my punishment as it stands now. I refuse to take further injury or accept punishment for the stupid decisions of a superior.”

“I like her,” Stark announced. Ollie didn’t resist the urge to glare at him.

“That’s _not_ a glowing recommendation,” she informed him flatly.

“Now _I_ like her,” Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow, spoke up. There was a vaguely amused smile on her face. “Come here, soldier.” Warily, Ollie obeyed, allowing her hands to drop but keeping them in sight still. She stopped a couple of metres from the Black Widow when the redheaded woman gestured for her to halt. “Name?”

“Olympia Fitzgerald, Ma’am.”

“Hm. Rank?”

“I’m just infantry, Ma’am.”

The Black Widow studied her a moment longer.

“Come with me, Fitzgerald.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Tourniquet

Tourniquet. A medical term. Something to stop the flow of blood to a serious wound, used to cut off the blood flow past the point of its use.

Knowing what something was didn’t mean that it made it any easier to use or make. Just because she knew what an arc reactor was didn’t mean she knew how to make or use one.

A tourniquet was the same. She knew what it was, she had a vague idea how to make one, but she didn’t know how effective it was because she hadn’t learned how to apply it properly. She was just guessing here.

If she’d tied it too tight, Pepper would lose her leg. If she’d tied it too loose, Pepper would bleed out before help could get there.

Darcy couldn’t let that happen. Not only would it destroy Rhodey and Tony, but it would be horrible for everyone who knew Pepper. Darcy herself would be distraught.

“Kriti, sweetheart, try calling your Pa or Dad again,” Darcy instructed the nearly-panicking ten year old. Kriti took a deep breath and nodded, using Darcy’s Starkphone to dial the number that had been drilled into her head when she came to live at the Tower.

Phil was still unconscious, and so was Bruce. Hela, thankfully, was unharmed and asleep in Jane’s arms, but Darcy didn’t know for how much longer and Pepper was bleeding _everywhere_ and Jane was hurt too and might have internal bleeding and…

“Papa!” Kriti cried, so relieved to hear her Papa’s voice. Darcy could hear Peter’s voice through the phone. “Papa, we crashed! Aunt Pepper’s bleeding and Uncle Phil and Uncle Bruce aren’t waking up and Aunt Jane’s hurt and—”

 _“Easy, sweetheart, breathe,”_ Peter instructed. _“What happened?”_

“We crashed! I don’t know why or how!”

_“Who else is awake, sweetheart?”_

“Aunt Darcy is, and so’s Aunt Jane but she’s hurt.”

_“Pass me to Aunt Darcy, sweetie.”_

“Just hold it to my ear,” Darcy informed Kriti, who bit her lip and nodded, but did as she was told. “Hey there, Spiderman. We could all use some help here.”

_“So I heard. How is everyone?”_

“Bruce and Phil seem unharmed, just unconscious. Jane’s awake at the moment, but I think she might be injured internally and she might have a concussion because her eyes aren’t focusing properly. I’m fine, just a few bruises and maybe a fractured ankle but I’ll be fine. Kriti and Hela are both fine, Kriti might have a few bruises but Jane, Pepper and I shielded the kids best we could.”

 _“We’re tracking the Quinjet and the phone now. Just hold on. How’s Pepper? Kriti said she’s bleeding.”_ A sob escaped Darcy before she could help it.

“I don’t have medical training, but I think I did the tourniquet right. Her leg’s bleeding really bad, Petey, I’ve been trying to slow it but I don’t know how much I’ve helped…”

 _“Breathe, Darcy.”_ That was Clint. Darcy did as ordered, breathing in deeply and letting it out slowly. _“There we go. Is Pepper awake?”_

“No, she passed out from the pain.”

 _“Alright, okay, just keep breathing, Darce. Can you fit a finger under the tourniquet? Check for me, please.”_ Darcy did so.

“No, I can’t.”

_“Good. Is the leg above the tourniquet going purple?”_

“No.”

_“Good. You tied it correctly, Darce, don’t worry so much.”_

“How can you expect me to _not worry_ when we’ve just been in a fucking plane crash?!” Darcy shrieked.

“You said a bad word,” Kriti whispered. Darcy couldn’t help the hysterical giggle that escaped her.

“Don’t repeat that word, Kriti, or your Pa will kill me.”

_“Breathe, Darcy. We’ll be there in three minutes. You guys didn’t get far.”_

“Okay. Okay.” Darcy breathed deeply. “Please hurry.”

_“We are, babe, we are. Keep breathing, keep an eye on Pepper’s leg, and stay safe. We’ll be there in a moment.”_

“Okay.”

Hill

Maria Hill didn’t get many new agents come directly to her. However, when Natasha Romanov knocked on her door with an army woman in tow, Maria put aside her paperwork and paid close attention.

“This is Olympia Fitzgerald,” Natasha introduced the woman. “She’ll make a good agent. She stood up for herself after Ross decided to be an idiot this morning at the Tower.”

Maria looked the soldier up and down, taking in the determined set of her face and perfect posture.

“She’ll do. Dismissed, Romanov.” Natasha smirked at her and left, leaving the army woman standing slightly awkwardly in Maria’s office. “Take a seat, Fitzgerald. Let me tell you about SHIELD…”


	34. Chapter 34

Survive

Pepper woke in a hospital bed. Her right leg throbbed with pain, but she was more concerned about the others who had been on the Quinjet when it crashed.

Darcy and Hela were at her bedside, so they were two accounted for.

“Hey,” Pepper croaked, and Darcy’s head shot up from the sleeping child in her arms. Pepper swallowed and ran her tongue around her mouth to moisten it a little.

“Pepper!” the younger woman exclaimed. “You're awake!”

“So it seems. The others?”

“Good, we’re all good. You were hurt the worst. Phil and Bruce just got knocked out, Jane had a couple of fractured ribs and a concussion but was cleared yesterday, and I just have a cast on my leg for the next couple of weeks.” Darcy lifted her left leg a little, revealing the dark blue cast.

“And I was the worst off?” Pepper persisted.

“Yeah. You got a huge cut on your right leg. I managed to tie a tourniquet so you didn’t bleed out before help got to us, but I was scared you might lose your leg from tying it too tight…” Darcy trailed off when Pepper shook her head.

“I would rather be alive with one leg than dead with two, Darcy,” she informed the woman gently. “And prosthetics are getting more and more advanced every week. Not to mention what Tony would come up with if I needed it. Thank you for saving me.”

“Thank you for surviving. For a while there I didn’t know if you were going to live.”

“Well clearly I will, so thank you. Where is everyone else?”

“Clint and Loki just went to get some food. I’ll call a nurse so you can get sorted,” Darcy added, and reached for the nurse call button.

Pepper let her, shuffling a little but then relaxing back into her pillows.

She’d survived, and that was all that mattered.

Even though her leg hurt like an absolute bitch right now...

Shotgun

“It turns out that it was an idiot with a shotgun who managed to shoot you down,” Clint told Phil, a grin pulling at the corner of his lips.

“That is ridiculous.”

“But true. He’s been thoroughly reprimanded, fined for not having a licence for his gun, and had his weapons confiscated. But he honestly didn’t mean to shoot you guys down.”

“What happened?”

“He shot into the air to scare off some idiot kids. In the process, he managed to shoot the Quinjet right in the engine.”

“Stupid luck, that is,” Phil muttered. “How in the world did we all survive?”

“Luck,” Clint shrugged. “Not that you all escaped unharmed, but still. It was just luck that you didn’t end up injured or dead.”

“You're telling me,” Phil sighed. “How did things work out with Ross?”

“Oh, you're never going to believe it! So, what happened was…”


	35. Chapter 35

Music

Quill was dancing.

Again.

The same damn songs on repeat, over and over, and Peter Quill danced along to nearly all of them.

It was starting to drive Rocket insane. There was only so many times a person could hear the same songs over and over and over again before something in the brain started to go a bit funny.

…actually, that explained a lot about Quill. Twenty-five years of listening to the same twelve songs could probably drive anyone batty, if living with Ravagers in constant fear of being eaten didn’t.

Sometimes Rocket wondered what the hell was wrong with some people, but he knew better than most that that was a huge list, and not one that could be used to generalise people.

Still, if Quill didn’t stop with that damn music in the next ten minutes, Rocket was going to start shooting. Not at anything vital, but he would make damn sure that it hurt.

Sin

There were people with picket signs outside Avengers Tower.

Why, Tony wasn’t sure. There were a lot of reasons for people to be picketing outside the Tower, and most of them were just because of Stark Industries.

Still, Tony decided to see what was going on.

He took a stroll down to the ground floor on the pretext of checking the mail – which all his friends and family saw through, considering he _never_ checked the mail and they had a department in the building specifically to sort and deliver mail to the correct recipients – and peered out the front doors of the Tower at the group picketing outside the doors. He couldn’t get a good look, though, and sauntered over to the reception area.

“So what’s going on out there?” he asked the three elderly women manning the desk.

“A group of religious nuts, Mister Stark,” the eldest, Agnes, informed him with a shake of her head. “They’re going on about how everyone in the building is going to hell for some reason or another. Going on about ‘sins’.” She gave a disapproving huff. “Damn idiots.”

Tony grinned. This was why he’d hired Agnes. She was like an older version of Darcy, but she swore a little less. Not much, but a little.

“So what’s today’s flavour?”

“Homosexuals, mutants, atheists, alcoholics and free love,” Daisy, the youngest of the three receptionists, rolled her eyes. “Honestly, most of them would’ve only been born because of alcoholics, atheists and those who practice free love.”

“Very true, Daisy, very true,” Tony chuckled. “What do you think, Mildred?”

“I think they’re disrupting traffic and causing a problem for security,” the third receptionist said tartly. “If they wish to protest the actions of regular people, they should take up in Central Park.”

“I knew there was a reason I liked you ladies.”

“You love us. Go out there and send them on their way, then.”

“I’ll take some backup, I think,” Tony mused, looking at the size of the crowd outside his building. “Cap and Bucky, maybe. Or Thor, Darcy and Cap.”

“You intend to rile them up even more, don’t you?” Agnes accused him happily.

“Got that right, Agnes m’dear. Who do you think I should call down?”

“Might I suggest young Sam and Pietro, as well as James and Steven?” Mildred put forward. Tony was practically rubbing his hands together in delight.

“Excellent. Mind calling up to JARVIS for me, ladies?”

“Of course not, Mister Stark,” Daisy gave another roll of her eyes, and picked up her phone. Tony just leaned against the receptionists’ counter and sorted through the few pieces of mail he’d picked up for his friends and family.

Hate

“So what do you want us to do, Tony?” Sam asked, eyeing the picketers warily.

“Just accompany me and watch my back while I suggest they move on. And if you could be particularly couple-y if they haven’t moved on in about three minutes, that’d be awesome.”

“You're asking for us to put ourselves on display in front of a bunch of religious fanatics.”

“Isn’t that what we do every day?”

“…you have a point,” Sam conceded, and glanced at Pietro. “You alright with this?” The mutant shrugged.

“Not against it, not particularly for it, but honestly I don’t mind riling a few idiots up.”

“There’s more than a few out there,” Steve frowned, but then glanced sideways at his atheist, male lover, who had been known to sleep around in his youth and enjoyed a good drink on the regular. Bucky was grinning widely, a dark gleam in his eyes. Steve sighed. “Fine. Let’s do this.”

“Excellent.” Tony rubbed his hands together like a cartoon villain. “Let’s go face the masses.”

“Have fun, boys,” the three elderly receptionists chorused.

“We will,” Bucky grinned back over his shoulder at them. “We’ll try to keep you entertained.”

“I’m sure you will,” Mildred said dryly.

And the five men stepped outside to face the group who hated them so.

Tony made sure to keep his building’s security forces between him and the picketers, dropping his shades down onto his face so as to keep at least part of his expression hidden.

“So, I hear you lot have an issue with a few things,” he called, capturing the attention of the picketing group. “Mind taking it elsewhere? I have a business to run.”

The vitriol spewed at him made him blink a couple of times in surprise.

“Wow. Tell me how you really feel.”

“Do not mock us,” one of the closer women hissed at him. Tony raised his hands in a placating motion – or at least the mimicry of one.

“Whoa, I’m not mocking anyone. Seriously, though, move along before I call the cops. You're obstructing traffic and making a scene. So shoo.”

There was a renewed outpouring of hate from the group, and Steve stepped forward to level a disapproving look at them all.

Turned out even people who hated the fact Captain America was gay (bisexual, actually, but those idiots didn’t consider that) couldn’t ignore the honestly disapproving look he gave them.

“You heard the man. Move out before the police are called.”

Even as they spat curses and epithets at the group of men, the religious nuts moved on as they had been ordered.

Turned out not even they could resist an order from Captain America. Who would’ve thought it?

Contours

“I am not entirely sure what the craft’s planet of origin is, but I can tell you that the design is that favoured by a group known as the Ravagers. They are similar to your world’s ideas of pirates, I suppose,” Loki mused, examining the contours and planes of the spacecraft that Tony’s tech had detected entering Earth’s atmosphere. “That colouring, however, is unlike that of Ravagers. They tend to stick to reds and silver, as opposed to orange and blue. It is also unlike Ravagers to send a single craft to a planet of such a size as this one.”

“So we’re probably facing a renegade of the Ravagers?” Tony asked.

“Possibly. There have been rumours… but I would need to see the crew to be certain. There have been some rather peculiar rumours lately that I wish to question the crew about.”

“Going to give us any clues what sort of rumours you're talking about?”

“I do not believe so. If I am wrong, it has little to no bearing on Earth or its people.”

“…fine. Where are they headed?”

“As these calculations are correct, as they always are… they are headed to your Malibu mansion.”

“Fuckers.”

“Indeed.”

“Shall we go intercept them?”

“Why not?”

Ravagers or not, whoever was crewing that sleek blue and orange ship would be in for a big surprise if they were going for one of Tony’s houses.

Believe

Darcy sighed as she crawled out of bed and stumbled over to her daughter’s cot, reaching down for the fussy toddler and lifting her up into her arms.

“You're getting heavy, sweetie,” Darcy sighed, settling into the rocking chair and humming absently as she started to rock. Hela’s sniffles died down, and she leaned her head on Darcy’s breast as her mother soothed her. “What’s wrong, huh baby?”

“Hur’s,” Hela sniffled. “Owie.” Darcy peered down at her daughter in the half-light of the room.

“What hurts, baby?”

“Mowf,” Hela rubbed at her mouth. “Owie, Mama, owie.”

“Your mouth hurting again?” Hela nodded, tucking her head back into Darcy’s shoulder a little petulantly. “Hold on a minute, baby, and I’ll get you something to help,” she murmured, stroking the little girl’s back.

She was getting teething pains again. And Loki and Clint had disappeared off on an Avengers mission to the other side of the country. Bastards.

Darcy walked into the kitchen, using one hand to rummage through the drawer for the soft teething ring that had proven to work best for Hela. Expertly juggling child and ring, Darcy filled the hollow, soft plastic with cool water from the tap, and once it was sealed gave it to her grumpy sixteen-month-old daughter.

“Better, baby?” Hela was making content sounds as she gnawed at the teething ring, and so Darcy took that as a ‘yes’ and headed back to her bedroom. “JARVIS, when are Loki and Clint getting back?”

 _“I believe they will return in a maximum of three days, Miss Lewis.”_ As he always did when Hela was asleep or sleepy, JARVIS kept his voice quiet, just barely loud enough for Darcy to hear his answer to her question. Whatever he knew about the reason both her partners had been needed, JARVIS was keeping it all on the down-low. Even Pepper and Bruce had no idea what was going on.

“Thanks, J.” Darcy settled back into the comfortable rocking chair, and in ten minutes had nodded off with her daughter asleep on her lap. JARVIS dimmed the lights completely, and returned to keeping watch over the occupants of the Tower.


	36. Chapter 36

Steal

They’d been hired to liberate a ‘technological marvel’ from its apparently greedy and selfish creator on Terra. Earth, to the natives, Midgard to the Asgardians and others of Yggdrasil, and Terra to the rest of the universe.

Calling a planet ‘Earth’ was kinda like calling it ‘dirt’, ‘rock’ or ‘soil’, to be honest. In Rocket’s opinion, anyway.

The Guardians of the Galaxy – dubbed as such by Ronan just before they stopped him from destroying Xandar (and kinda dissolving him into ash in the process… oops) – had been hired by a mysterious but well-paying client to steal the plans for a piece of advanced technology called an ‘arc reactor’, and if possible they were supposed to try and get a working model for bonus credits. Apparently the creator of the device was refusing to share the blueprints or create any other than for his personal use, and their client found that to be selfish and greedy. Whatever.

Except…

When they got to Terra, and had located the thing they were there to steal, they had been caught immediately by an Asgardian and a group of humies.

And damn it all, Rocket recognised the pompous Asgardian.

“Ah, fuck,” Rocket growled, glaring at the humie gaping stupidly at him. “We been set up, Quill.”

“You don’t say,” Quill snapped back, glaring at the red and gold metal suit currently restraining him. “I knew we shouldn’t trust that guy!”

“No fucking shit,” Rocket snarled. He was being held firmly by the Asgardian, whose hands were big enough that one of them was enough to stop Rocket from being able to escape or shoot his way to an escape.

Gamora was baring her teeth at the huge blonde human restraining her, Groot was too small to be of much use and was held easily (but admittedly carefully) by a bewildered-looking guy with sand-coloured hair and a freaking _bow_ of all weapons, and Drax was being held down by a burly guy with a prosthetic arm, a small woman with bright red hair, and a small human male in a red and blue costume that hid his face.

If he was being completely honest, Rocket would admit that he was kinda surprised that the three humans were enough to hold down Drax, especially considering how small two of them were.

“Who hired you?” a tall but lanky black-haired, pale-skinned human asked them with a frown. “And what did they send you to retrieve?”

“We didn’t get a name,” Quill grumbled. “He just offered us a hell of a lot if we could get him the plans for something called an arc reactor.”

“Fuck,” the metal suit – or rather, the guy _in_ the suit – swore. “It was either someone from Earth, or someone off-planet with contacts here.”

“Clearly, Stark,” the black-haired human growled. “These five would not have an interest in your technology themselves, except maybe the smallest one.”

“How do you know that?” the man in the suit – Stark – asked, flipping up his mask to reveal the face of a dark-haired human not much older than Quill.

“These five saved their galaxy from a vengeance-ridden Kree with access to an Infinity Stone. They would not go through such an effort only to steal something capable of destroying a planet.”

“You know an awful lot about us,” Rocket growled suspiciously at the black-haired human. The man just snorted.

“I keep an ear out for the gossip of the universe,” he said dryly. “When Peter Quill managed to not only hold the Power Stone but channel it, admittedly with the assistance of others, whispers spread far enough that I heard it even here.”

“You freak me out sometimes, Lokes,” Stark said in an almost admiring tone. “I approve.”

“Yes, because your approval is so very necessary,” ‘Lokes’ rolled his eyes, but a smile curved his mouth up a little. “They are not too great a threat. We are, after all, all of us fighting to end Thanos for good.”

 _That_ little titbit _really_ got the Guardians’ attention.

Helmet

“Your helmet is stupid-looking, but… at least it doesn’t have horns,” Tony sighed eventually, getting a scowl from the self-titled Star Lord as Peter Quill reclaimed his helmet-mask-thing.

“You’re not exactly able to throw stones, considering what you fly around with,” Quill retorted, and Tony pasted on an affronted look before his mask cracked and he grinned cheekily.

“Touché. So, can I get you a drink? I got plenty to choose from.”

“…sure. Surprise me.”

Somewhere

“Oh, good, you're back,” a frazzled redheaded woman greeted the Guardians and the Avengers when they entered what Stark had called the ‘common floor’ of a huge, gleaming tower. “Loki, Clint, Darcy’s been up with Hela for the past week, she’s teething again, so I’d watch out if I were you,” she warned Loki and Hawkeye as she hurriedly slipped her feet into a pair of thin-heeled shoes. “I’ve got to get to the office. Welcome back, don’t blow anything up, introduce me to your guests later, and please don’t cause the PR department any difficulties.”

And then the woman was gone.

“Wow,” Quill commented. “She talks fast.”

“Pepper is a bit worn at the moment,” a slightly-balding man in a suit informed them with a faint, polite smile. “Welcome to New York.”

“Thanks,” Quill was a little hesitant to smile back.

“Petey~” someone sing-songed, and Peter Quill started in surprise before realising that actually, the crazy dude in red and black now skipping into the room _wasn’t_ talking to him. The small guy in the red and blue gave a sigh and shook his head, allowing himself to be grabbed in a huge hug by the one in red and black.

“Hey, Wade. How’s Kriti?”

“Darcy wouldn’t let me take her on a field trip,” the crazy guy – Wade – pouted so much it was visible through his mask.

“You know you're not allowed to take her out of the Tower without me,” the guy in red and blue – apparently also named Peter – sighed. He tugged off his mask, revealing that he was quite young – he was probably barely out of his teens. “Where is she?”

“Brucey is teaching her Science stuff. I got lost so I went looking for…” Wade trailed off. “Never mind, doesn’t matter!”

“Uh-huh.” Quill didn’t think Peter believed Wade. “C’mon then. Bedroom.”

The wide grin on Wade’s face was also visible as he followed Peter to the stairs with a bounce in his step.

“Are they going off to do what I think they’re going to do?” Quill asked.

“Yep,” Stark sighed. “Wade’s been out of the country for a month or so, so I’m not surprised.”

“None of us are,” the balding man added dryly.

“Phil, where’s Darcy?” Hawkeye asked, fidgeting on the spot.

“Entertainment room. Hela’s asleep, so go quietly,” the older man, apparently named Phil, replied, and both Hawkeye and Loki left the room quickly.

Thor, the Asgardian, nodded politely to Phil and moved past him, calling for a ‘Jane’ in what probably passed as quiet for the large man. Somewhere a child started crying.

“THOR!” A woman shouted. “I’m going to Taze you again, I swear!” Thor paled and disappeared, and a small curvy woman soon appeared and disappeared in pursuit of the god.

“That was my daughter,” Stark informed the Guardians as Romanov, Rogers and Barnes headed off to do their own thing. “Touch her and die.”

“You speak big for a guy your size,” Quill smirked at him.

“Stark won’t be the one killing you. If Darcy doesn’t do it, it’ll be Clint or Loki who does. They’re very protective of her, and Darcy isn’t to be underestimated,” Phil informed Quill calmly. “I am also quite protective of her.”

Quill, for some reason, found that scarier than the threat of Loki or Clint/Hawkeye coming after him, and he nodded quickly.

“So where’s the twins and their hangers-on? They’re in the Tower somewhere, right?” Stark asked.

“Wanda is visiting her sons, but Pietro and Sam are in the entertainment room. If you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do.”

And then the scary suit-wearing man was gone.

Height

“You’re really tall.”

“Not really. You’re just short.”

“I am not!”

“Babe, you’re about 5 foot 3. You’re short.”

“Don’t call me babe!”

“You are more than six feet tall, however, so you are tall,” Loki pointed out.

“Says the guy taller than me,” Peter Quill a.k.a. Star Lord protested.

“I, however, am of a race considered giants, and am a runt of that species.” Darcy stuck her tongue out at Quill, sticking close to Loki’s side.

“You are quite small in stature,” Gamora told Darcy, sounding only vaguely apologetic. “Are all humans such a height?”

“We vary from about 4 foot 10 to 6 foot 8 in adulthood, unless we have a genetic condition that causes us to be either shorter or taller,” Darcy informed the green-skinned alien. “I’m just below average height for someone of my race. It doesn’t help that my parents are both short.”

“I resent that,” Tony protested as he entered the room.

“You’re not much taller than me, so suck it up,” Darcy poked her tongue out at her biological father. “And I blame you for my lack of height.”

“As fascinating as this conversation is,” Loki drawled. “Is there a particular reason for it?”

“Not really,” Darcy shrugged. “I was just commenting on the dude’s height.”

“Hm.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Never mind, Darcy. It is nothing of importance.”

“Lokiiiiii!”

“…you truly are quite short.”

“Bastard!”

“No swearing in front of Hela,” Clint objected, entering the room with the girl toddling in front of him. Darcy huffed. “And yes, Darce, you’re short. You get it from your dad.”

“You are such a D-I-C-K-H-E-A-D, Barton.”

“You love me anyways.”

“Unfortunately. true.”

Computer

“Dumb computer,” Peter Quill muttered, glaring at the screen before him.

 _“I am no mere computer, Mister Quill,”_ JARVIS said reproachfully, making the man jump and look around wildly. _“If you would direct your attention back to the screen, I will show you what you require.”_

“…what the hell?” Quill was freaking out.

“Oh, hey Quill,” Peter Parker gave a wave, and then paused when he saw the freaked look on the man’s face. “What’s up?”

“There was a voice talking to me. What the hell?”

“Voice…? Oh, that’s JARVIS,” Parker shrugged. “He runs the Tower, and a whole heap of other stuff besides. Didn’t Tony introduce you when you arrived?”

“No,” Quill pouted. “What the hell, though?”

 _“I am an Artificial Intelligence, named Just A Rather Very Intelligent System, or JARVIS for short,”_ JARVIS introduced himself. _“Mister Stark created me. I suppose he could be considered my father.”_

“I’m touched, J,” Tony grinned as he entered the room in time to hear that final comment. “You know you're my favourite son.”

_“Indeed, Sir. Mister Quill is having difficulties with using my systems. Perhaps a crash course for the Tower’s new occupants would be of assistance?”_

“Sure thing, J, just schedule it in. And hey, you can even do it yourself if you like.”

_“Considering that Mister Rocket is rather trigger happy, sir, I do believe it would be best if you introduced me before allowing me to do so. I would prefer no destruction to the Tower.”_

“Fair point. Well, let me know when, and I’ll come and sort things out.”

_“Of course, Sir.”_


	37. Chapter 37

Days

They’d been on Terra for over a week. Drax was starting to get antsy with the inactivity, whereas Groot and Quill were finding the downtime to be just that – downtime. Relaxing. Rocket was also having much fun, spending most of his time in the laboratories with Stark, Banner, Foster and Parker. Loki, who had been revealed to be one of the Jötunn, spent much of his time with an infant girl and the small yet feisty young woman named Darcy, the daughter of Stark.

Romanov and Barton had disappeared two days previous, and Wilson – the insane one, not the one with mechanical wings – had also taken off for parts unknown.

Gamora was curious about the child Kriti, who called both Parker and insane Wilson her fathers, yet looked nothing like either of them. Also, Parker was too young to have fathered the eleven-year-old girl.

“Your skin is really pretty,” said child told Gamora, startling the assassin. Gamora stared down at her in surprise, and Kriti smiled. As Gamora watched, the girl’s skin changed colour to mimic hers. Small fingers poked curiously at a small forearm, and then the girl looked back up at Gamora. “What do you think?”

“I think you are very talented,” Gamora told her honestly. “To control your skin pigmentation at such an age is very impressive.” Kriti’s skin changed back to its original pale brown, and a blush dusted her small cheeks.

“Thanks. Not many people know about my powers,” the child told the assassin. “Only the people who live in the Tower, and some people at Professor X’s house.”

“Why is that?” Gamora asked. The child was not being raised as an assassin or spy, so why did she need to keep her ability a secret?

“Because most normal humans are scared of people with powers like mine,” Kriti shrugged, although she did appear slightly sad. “When my power started showing a few years ago, my birth parents abandoned me. Papa – Peter Parker – saved me and adopted me. Since Daddy – Wade – is pretty much Papa’s husband, he’s one of my parents now too.”

Well, that answered Gamora’s unspoken question as to why Kriti looked nothing like either of her fathers.

“Why are people scared of you?”

“Because they don’t understand. Some of them don’t listen to the science that explains the X-gene, and those that do call us mutants. They don’t understand, and humans hate what they don’t understand.”

“Very simply put, but Kriti is correct,” Phil Coulson gave Gamora a sad smile as he placed a hand on Kriti’s shoulder. The girl leaned back into the contact, obviously not fearful of him in the slightest. “Most humans fear that they do not understand, and those who show their differences visibly like Kriti does are often ostracised for being unlike their peers or families. Kriti was simply lucky she was not killed and was found by Parker when she was.”

“Papa takes care of me,” Kriti agreed, and glanced at the clock. “I have lessons now. Can I talk to you later, Miss Gamora?”

“Of course.” She wished to get to know this unusual child while she was on Terra, regardless of how many or how few days she had left here.

Advantage

_There is a certain advantage to knowing nothing about your sparring partner,_ Steve thought absently as he dodged a swing from Drax. _You don’t fall into the trap of assuming you know what they will do and how they will react._

Sparring with the big alien was exhilarating. Steve had to constantly be on his guard and fully alert, otherwise he could find himself nursing bruised and fractured bones. It made it all so much more fun. There was a higher chance of injury, yes, but it was still a lot of fun to spar with an unknown.

Steve grunted as he found himself flat on his back once more, staring up at the gym ceiling whilst he tried to regain his breath. The impact with the floor had winded him.

“You fight well,” Drax rumbled as he hauled Steve to his feet. “You have been a worthy adversary.”

“Thanks,” Steve wheezed. “Why don’t you spar with Thor next time? I hear he wants to find out if he can best you.”

“I greatly anticipate such a match.” Steve nodded, and hobbled off to the side where Bucky had been watching and fidgeting as Drax threw him around the room.

“That looked painful,” Bucky commented.

“It was fun,” Steve objected, grinning, and Bucky rolled his eyes.

“Of course it was. Come on, Super Soldier, let’s get you up to Bruce to be checked out.”

“I’m fine.”

“Uh-huh. Let Bruce confirm that, yeah?”

“Fine…”

Question

It wasn’t so much a question of whether or not to allow the Guardians to leave, it was more a question of who had hired them to steal from Tony. There were only so many people who knew all the uses of an arc reactor, and the number of them willing to hire someone to steal the blueprints from Tony was even smaller. Most of those weren’t even aware that it was possible to hire aliens to do so, or have the means to contact said aliens.

So that left only SHIELD.

And Tony was sick and fucking tired of having to dodge Fury’s manipulations at every turn just because the pirate couldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

“Tony? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Tony grumbled, leaning into Bruce’s side when the curly-haired man slung an arm around his shoulders. “I just want to strangle Fury, that’s all.”

“You always want to strangle Fury. That’s your normal state. What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know how to confront him,” Tony admitted, puffing out his cheeks in a huff. “I mean, I know a lot of ways to confront him, but I don’t know which would be best and I don’t know how many people were in the know about hiring that lot to steal from me.”

“Why don’t you get them to contact Fury and confirm his identity? They can say that they were successful, and you can see if it really is Fury behind it.”

“You’re amazing,” Tony declared, grinning as he jumped to his feet. Bruce rolled his eyes and hauled himself to his feet.

“Uh-huh. Go on, before you vibrate out of your skin from eagerness. I’ll talk to Phil and Pepper.” Tony darted in and kissed Bruce’s cheek, then practically ran for the elevator to head up from the workshop to where the Guardians were supposed to be hanging out with some of the others.

Name

“What kind of name is Fury?” Rocket wrinkled his muzzle.

“I am Groot.”

“Yeah, no kiddin’.”

“Fury is his surname,” Phil said calmly. “His name is Nicholas. Most people know him as Director Fury or Nick Fury.”

“It’s still a stupid name,” Rocket grumbled.

“No one’s disagreeing with you,” Quill rolled his eyes. “So what’s the plan?”

The entire room was silent.

“Please tell me there _is_ a plan?” Phil rubbed the bridge of the nose as he spoke.

“Maybe… twelve percent of a plan?” Pepper offered cheekily.

“I’m never going to live that down,” Tony said mournfully. Rocket snorted, glancing at Quill.

“That sounds familiar,” he drawled. Quill’s cheeks went a bit pink.

“Shut up, it was eleven percent,” the self-titled Star Lord muttered.

“I’m so glad those two didn’t meet earlier in their lives,” Natasha murmured to Pepper, who stifled a laugh and nodded her agreement.

Denial

Director Nick Fury of SHIELD locked the door to his office and pressed the unique key combination which would disable the cameras there for his protection. They would show only a loop of the past five minutes, which was him pacing his office.

He’d been expecting this call, and he made sure that he was alone to take it.

“Do you have the item?” he demanded as soon as the face of Peter Jason Quill appeared on his vid screen. The crook-for-hire looked slightly taken aback for a moment.

“Whoa, calm down, oh my god. Yes, we got it.”

“Any trouble?”

“Nope, it was easy. Quick in and out,” Quill smirked. “So where are we dropping this stuff off and how are we getting the rest of our payment?”

“You’ll receive payment the same damned way you got the first half,” Fury growled at the insolent man. “And I’m not telling you jack shit about where you're passing over those blueprints over a connection that isn’t secure.”

“Take it easy, man, I’m just asking. God. I don’t know about your end, but this connection is as secure as we can make it,” he added. “Rocket’s got skills way better than anything you Terrans can come up with.”

“Excuse me if I don’t take your word for it,” Fury growled. “I’ll contact you in three days with the details for delivery. Don’t get yourself captured or killed in the meantime.”

He cut the connection.

In the Milano, parked atop Avengers Tower, Peter Quill leaned back from his console and smirked, glancing back at the silent figures of Tony Stark and Phil Coulson.

“So, is that your guy?”

“It definitely is,” Tony snarled, and stalked from the Milano in a rage. Phil Coulson, despite his neutral facial expression and calm body language, was just as furious – Quill wasn’t sure how he knew, but he could tell. It was kinda creepy, to be completely honest.

“Thank you for your assistance,” the agent said calmly. “We will take it from here.”

“Uh, sure. Do you guys want a hand or something?”

“I am sure that if we require it, we will let you know.” Phil followed Tony, leaving Peter alone in his ship.

“Damn,” he said softly, to himself more than to the foot-tall figure of Groot on the co-pilot chair beside him. “That must really suck.”

“I am Groot?”

“Nothing, buddy. It’s nothing. Come on, let’s get you back inside to find Rocket.”

“I am Groot.”

“I’m sure he’ll let you drink the tap water, don’t be silly. C’mon, up you get.” Groot climbed up onto Peter’s shoulder, and the self-titled Star Lord left his ship to go talk with his crew and their possible allies and friends.


End file.
